Damn Tourists
by Kfhlhckvifkbduvl
Summary: 3 years after the movie ended and Judy Hopps is living the perfect life. Promotion? Check. New apartment? Check. Perfect relationship? Check. Then a grenade is thrown right in the middle of her bliss: her parents have come to visit...MWAHAHA Judy x Nick I OWN NOTHING
1. Chapter 1

_DING DONG_

The grating chime of the doorbell wrenched Judy from a deep, peaceful sleep. She shifted slightly on the twisted bedclothes before settling back into him, vaguely hoping that if she ignored the visitor they'd leave like a bad dream. Nick's soft fur tickled her nose. She smiled and burrowed deeper, enveloping herself in his warmth. The half-conscious fox sighed blissfully in response, reaching out and cradling her to him, nuzzling her cheek. But then the bell rang again, more insistently, and Judy , with extreme reluctance, untangled herself and rolled out of bed with a disgruntled groan. She and Nick were supposed to be off-duty, but she supposed if something serious had come up...

Judy padded stealthily out of the bedroom and across the kitchen, vainly trying to wrestle herself into a dressing gown. The morning sunlight let in by the windows lanced vindictively into her eyes. Annoyance began to stir in her gut as the bell rang a third time.

"OK, OK I'm coming," she muttered, swinging the door open with a theatrical flourish. Her sleepy brain registered the absence of police uniforms. _So_ _much_ _for_ _serious_. Judy opened her mouth to ward these unwanted guests away when she recognised their faces. Then the words died in her throat and she felt the world collapse around her.

"Hiya honey!" her mother beamed. It was all Judy could do to stare in horror, producing some very odd gurgling sounds.

"Mom... Dad... What are you doing here?" she finally managed to choke out, now wide awake and mind racing. She was suddenly painfully aware of her ruffled fur, paws instinctively reaching for her unkempt ears. The timid little prey animal in the back of her head was imploring her to run. To run until her legs gave out and never, ever look back.

"It's my birthday next week, Jude, remember?" her father laughed boisterously, all ruddy cheeks and whiskers, "So your mom and I thought we'd come see our little girl in the big city!"

"Yeah," Judy mumbled faintly, still shell-shocked, "I remember. It's just that I really, really wanted to come round and... deliver my gift this weekend - y'know, at home. At... uh, Bunny Burrow." She trailed off. Only half of her mind was on the conversation; the rest was formulating then discarding insane escape plans at a million miles an hour. And oh Gods, Nick was still asleep in bed! She shuddered; if they found out like this...

"Well, nonsense," her mother tutted, trying unsuccessfully to edge past her daughter into the shadowy appartement beyond, "we haven't seen your new apartment yet!"

"Fine MOM," Judy grinned maniacally, stepping aside and letting her parents through. The older bunnies shared a worried glance,

"Jude, are you feelin' OK?"

"Fine, DAD, just fine!" a muffled crash from the bedroom told her Nick had got the message. Her mother's head whipped round.

"What was that?" Damn. She'd always had exceptional ears.

"Probably just the neighbours; they're _really_ loud!" Judy thought her cheeks might give out from the insescent grinning; the timid prey animal in her still wanted to balk.

"Oh.. Well, this is a very nice place dear" her mother commented approvingly, pirouetting slowly so she could take it all in. Judy heaved a sigh of relief and latched on to this new topic. She needed to lead them away from Nick.. Maybe convince them to take a morning stroll through the neighbourhood? But her father, nodding in agreement, scuppered this plan by planting himself firmly in a kitchen chair. Judy could feel the perspiration rolling off her. Her parents being here, it was... wrong. Like a flying saucer had just beamed a couple of chipper looking aliens into her appartment.

"Isn't it just?" Stu agreed, "I don't know, all these swanky city places. But how did you pay for it Jude?" Oh no... Judy cast her mind back to the moment she'd first walked through the front door herself, some six months ago.

 _They'd taken the train here, Nick and her. He'd been buzzing louder than a beehive about his big surprise for hours and Judy had played along, silently revelling in one of his rare, carefree moments. He'd led her into the elevator and down the hallway with his paws clasped tightly over her eyes. It had been thrilling, in a childish sort of way. Like unwrapping presents at Christmas. She'd heard the key click in the lock, and she'd tried not to peek, she swore she did. But it was too much for her, so Judy wrestled his paws away. The midday sun had streamed through the windows, illuminating every corner in warm light. There was so much space, it felt like a castle compared to the old broom cupboard she'd been living in. It felt like home, even then. But her dad was right, there was no way she'd ever be able to afford it, not on her own. Then, eyes sparkling and fur glimmering gold in the noonlight, Nick had dropped one of his bombshells. ("I figure it's about time because you practically live round my place anyway, and now I can get you to finally start paying rent. Plus your stairs are a menace.") Next thing she knew they'd moved in together. Just_ _like that, the most natural thing in the world._

But her parents couldn't know.

"My promotion to detective came with a great raise - it's a long story - would you excuse me for a second?" Judy gabbled, already scuttling down the hall and into the bedroom, leaving them blinking in bewilderment. She slammed the door shut behind her. "Nick? You OK?" she whispered.

"Well, I never really wanted to know what your socks tasted like, but apart from that I'm good," came the muffled reply from under the the bed, and the fox wriggled out of his hiding place. He looked so ridiculous, so undignified and so _not-Nick_ Judy would've burst out laughing on any normal day. But today wasn't normal. "Do they know we're living together?" he asked as he brushed dust off his fur, eyebrow cocked. Judy felt the bottom drop out of her stomach. Yet again.

"Uh... No"

"Oh." his face fell momentarily. God, didn't he know he was tearing the heart right out of her? "but you can tell them now, right, so it won't be weird when I come out of your bedroom?" Judy gnawed at her lip nervously;

"Nck, I haven't told them anything." He froze like a deer in headlights.

Anything? But... _Two years_ , Judy... How is that even possible?" his voice had grown incredulous and shrill and Judy worried her parents would hear. Immediately they all came flooding back; all those family visits when she'd tried, she'd really tried, but the words had escaped her because everything had seemed so perfect and she was terrified of screwing it up. Her life in Zootopia was hers, a beautiful golden bubble. But so fragile: She'd been so scared of popping it.

...

Meanwhile, Mr and Mrs Hopps were arguing with a wall. Bonnie had been commenting on the general 'mixed up' nature of the Zootopians when a waspish voice had issued from the tiles:

"Well excuse me, little miss high and mighty, but we can't all take it as slow as you farmers!" Mrs Hopps jumped a country mile.

"Arrgghh! Oh, I mean... Well, it's just that our daughter Judy, we worry about her, that's all... Isn't that right, Stu?"

"Right on, hun," agreed Mr Hopps, "but I think we've got to accept she's all grown up now..."

"Your name's _Stew_?" interrupted the voice, edged with mirth, "Isn't it a bad omen or something, calling a rabbit Stew?" Mr and Mrs Hopps looked horrified. There was a muffled thump from the other side of the wall, followed by the faint sound of cursing.

"Bugger off," ordered a second, softer voice, "don't worry about your Judy folks; she's got this lot well in hand -" the new speaker was interrupted by a sharp yelp ricochetting down the hall, followed by a raucous trumpet; the voice sighed resignedly "hold on a mo' - WILL YOU TWO FLEABAGS SHUT UP?! WE'VE GOT ENOUGH NOISE WITH DORIS AND HER RUDDY HAIRBALLS KEEPING US UP 'TIL TWO IN THE MORNING! Sorry, folks, that was room 102. Flat share between a hyena and an elephant, goes about as smoothly as you'd expect," Mr Hopps nodded at the blank wall with sage understanding. "Anyway, as I was saying. About your Judy..."

...

"Do you want me to climb out the window?" asked Nick, only half-joking. Judy laughed and rubbed her cheek against his silky tail.

"Somehow I don't think this is worth you plumeting thirty storeys to your death. "

" Aww, you really do care, " he crooned, playing with her ears. "Seriously though, it might be better than being caught by your parents," he grimaced, "they don't even know we're partners?"

"Nope," sighed Judy, running her paws over Nick's tail. Part of her, a disturbingly large part, wanted nothing more than to wrap herself up with him and never come out of the room again.

"But I came to your house that time, when you needed to escape from that date they sprang on you, remember?" he protested, a tinge of desperation coluring his words. A smile played across Judy's lips. She did remember. Nick had been in full slippery con-man mode, all smooth words and smoother moves. To be honest she'd felt quite sorry for her smarmy 'date', whom Nick had treated with the same disdain he would have a piece of gum on the bottom of his shoe. Bogo would've been proud. As for her parents, the looks on their faces, confronted with this walking embodiment of all their fears, were priceless. She and Nick had _cried_ afterwards for laughing so hard. Judy just hadn't had the heart to tell them he was her partner. She groaned and flopped onto the bed. _Just_ _hadn't_ _had_ _the_ _heart_.

"I don't know, Bottlebrush. It seems so stupid in hindsight, but it was all happening so fast. It was like a perfect hurricane: the badge, the cases, my friends. And you," she rolled over and looked Nick in the eye. Those sparkling, emerald eyes that could still take her breath away,"You were beyond perfect."

"If I didn't know any better, I'd think you were trying to butter me up with compliments." he remarked, stretching languidly like a cat.

"Me?" asked Judy with mock anger, "Never! Besides, I thought that was your job." she breathed, burying her nose in the crook between his shoulder and neck.

"OK, point taken," Nick conceded, "I may have occasionally used my considerable charm to escape certain... annoyances- " Judy grinned into his fur - "but back to the point; wasn't it you who brought fox-repellent to the city?" Now it was her turn to grimace.

"But that's exactly what I mean, Nick! My parents gave me that repellent; they hate foxes! They'll never say it to your face but they've feared your species since the day Gideon attacked me!" she glanced down and her voice grew softer, so soft Nick had to shuffle even closer to hear; "I would never have admitted it, but that's part of why I came here. To see if they were right about predators. Everything I'd been raised on pulled against it, but I just had to see." her face contorted to somewhere between a grin and a grimace, "Honestly, the tiger I sat next to at the train station was the first really different species I'd ever been close to, and he scared the living shit out of me." Now Judy looked back up at him, glaring, defiant. "But Zootopia worked, Nick! I mean, it wasn't exactly smooth sailing but I got there: A week later I was a respected officer and my best friend was a fox!"

"You should be telling them this, not me." he interjected, resisting the urge to bundle her up and hide her away. It was her goddamn eyes, like amethyst fire. He'd always found them hypnotic. "Take them out for breakfast, explain everything. I'll be at the precinct by the time you get back." Judy winced and in spite of himself Nick rolled his eyes.

He couldn't fathom why this was so difficult for her. The way she gushed about her parents sometimes; it seemed Judy had had the perfect childhood. Sure, having her dreams trodden on must've been harsh, but that was pretty insignifigant compared to being wrestled away, wailing helplessly as your dad was arrested. It definitely didn't have anything on peeking through the banisters as your mother answered the door at the dead of night, then watching her collapse onto the embarrassed police officer standing there, her body wracked with heaving sobs. And, no offence, but Judy's family troubles really couldn't touch being sat down by your grieving mom, as a ten-year old kid, and being told you were the man of the house now because daddy had gone and got himself shot... No.

Nick loved Judy and, though he'd never admit it, respected her so much. But family was too important for something as trivial as such pointless secrets to get in the way. "If you don't tell them I will" Nick stated calmly, "all of it. Every last detail." He almost grinned at Judy's mortified expression. "Love you loads! Now go on and get out there. I'd better put some clothes on; I really don't want them catching me with my pants down..."

...

"Hiya honey!" trilled Mrs Hopps in a suspiciously sunny tone. From her position leaning against the bedroom door, Judy's eyes darted around the kitchen. There was something wrong... Something - something missing... Her father cleared his throat in an authoritative manner.

"So," he began, beaming affably. He too seemed uncommonly pleased; Judy was reminded of a birthday balloon pumped up just a little too much, threatening to burst, "tell us everything that's happened since your last visit. Spare no detail!" Judy blanched as pure, unadulterated terror struck her. Had they heard? They couldn't have! The bedroom was all the way down the hall, and they'd been whispering. Besides, she was 100% certain her dad would have to be higher than a pot-smoking llama to be even remotely happy about her and Nick. Judy recomposed herself quickly and fixed on her warmest smile. The one she'd perfected over three years of playing the precinct's resident good cop and reserved for the hardest to crack interrogations. Or getting Nick to do the washing.

"Why don't you sit down, mom?" she offered, walking forward with paws raised like she was cornering some savage beast. Her mother sat with some difficulty; she was either extremely excited or extremely constipated. Her father was staring at her raptly. "I have something to tell you - " but Judy was drowned out by Mrs Hopps' ear-splitting squeal of delight.

"Oh it's so amazing! My baby girl!" And to Judy's complete and utter bemusement, she began to bawl her eyes out.

"Steady on there hun," murmured Stu, also holding back tears. Judy's befuddlement mutated into something ugly and raw as her mother fished _her_ gleaming engagement ring out of her pocket. Judy steeled herself, tried to block it out. But that little bastard called instinct was whispering in her ear. She shouldn't have listened, but as a cop she'd learnt to follow her gut. Man, what a crappy excuse. So before anyone knew it instinct was pulling her strings and she'd snatched the ring up; drawn it to her chest like a mother protecting her kit.

 _Crap._

Bogo was right; three years and she was still green as hell... She had wanted to take it slow, not dump it on them all at once... "Why didn't you tell us you had a mate?" demanded her father indignantly, "and you're getting engaged? Why would you keep a secret like that?!" Judy could almost feel Nick smirking silently to himself through the door. Damn him and his bombshells.

 _He'd only given her the ring a month ago, right in the middle of movie night, after several nerve-wracking hours acting so serious and uptight. His mood hadn't slipped by Judy either, and worry ate away at her. Usually by that point the movie and snacks would've been long forgotten and they would've moved on to more... interesting things. When Nick finally produced the ring out of nowhere, like a magician, Judy had almost been relieved. For a moment, for a brief, shinning moment she was giddy as a schoolgirl._

 _Then it hit her hard. Like a ton of bricks._

 _How far, how deep things had gotten without her noticing. Nick was the last mammal on Earth she would expect to want to settle down ("Marriage is a geriatric institution symbolising how we are all really slaves to the expectations of society" he had once proclaimed - only to regret it when she'd gleefully flung it back in his face before accepting). The whole world was turning upside down, pivoting on its axis. A thousand emotions were scrambling for dominance in her mind, chasing each other's tails round and round... It felt unreal, dreamlike. It had felt like she was watching someone else's life. Because it was impossible, to feel this happy. To have that joy, that electric wonder crackling under her skin. For it to fill her up from her toes right to the tips of her ears. Was she crying? Why was she crying?_

But it wasn't all perfect. And now her biggest mistake was coming back to bite her in the tail. Judy had to keep them calm. _Don't get ahead of yourself, Hopps_.

"Oh no this is - this is a friend's. I'm holding it for her while she makes up her mind." Nick shifted discontentedly behind her, but the hardened cop deep inside told Judy she'd made the right call. A situation like this required baby steps. Already Mrs Hopps looked like she'd just been robbed of a prize possession. Judy's dad had definitely deflated.

"Sod it," cursed the kitchen wall; "Frank, I thought you said you'd heard her say yes!"

"I did, the furball's lying!" came the sulky reply. Judy marched up to the wall, nostrils flared, and bellowed at the top of her lungs:

"YOU TWO ASSHOLES HAD BETTER NOT BE LISTENING IN TO OUR PRIVATE CONVERSATIONS AGAIN!" she roared, almost lifting herself off her feet. All the anger and frustration that had been building for the last half-hour came brimming over with an icy vengeance.

"No! Not us, officer Hopps! We were just trying to be friendly with your folks is all... Frank didn't mean anything by it!"

"JUST LIKE HE DIDN'T MEAN ANYTHING BY TYING POOR MISS 102'S TRUNK IN KNOTS?!" Judy exploded, "REMEMBER, I'M A POLICE OFFICER. I WARNED YOU JACKASSES IF ANYTHING LIKE THIS HAPPENED AGAIN I'D GET REAL PISSED REAL FAST!" at this point she was rather enjoying herself. She so rarely got to play bad cop.

"Won't do it again, we promise" offered the voice weakly.

"Oooh, got answer for everything, hasn't she? See if she can explain away the howling we keep hearing in the middle of the night, go on." Judy went red as a beetroot and actually punched the tiles.

"SHUT UP!"

"Aahh, hit a soft spot have I?" gloated Frank "and what about that partner of yours, bet they wouldn't want to- murmph!" at this point, probably sensing Frank's life was in imminent danger, his friend dragged him bodily away.

"Um" coughed Mrs Hopps, looking markedly pale. With a shock Judy realised she had never really sworn in front of her before. Prickly heat began creeping up her neck. She could almost hear Nick mutter _Good on you, cottontail_. Oops.

"Well done, Judes. Best to be a bit forcible with these dopes!" enthused Mr Hopps, swooping in to her rescue. Judy smiled weakly and sat down.

And just like that they began to talk. About everything, anything. Her parents soon got over their crestfallen reaction to the 'false' engagement alarm. Judy's worries began to melt away. She was still on edge but this... This was almost normal. Right down to her dad's excessive complaints about his lumbago. But then, almost inevitably it seemed, disaster struck.

"It's just as well you're not getting married dear; I can't imagine the stress of bringing up a litter with a full-time job. In this city! So noisy and dirty and dangerous!" remarked Mrs Hopps in an offhand way that effectively shattered the moment into a million pieces.

Instinctively Judy knew that Nick, already growing impatient for his cue to emerge from the bedroom, would take this remark to heart. But he wasn't the only one. She knew she could never have the same connection to the city Nick had; he was Zootopia born and bred. But she was still Zootopian too. Her parents, they had no idea, living out their lives on the ancient, roving hills. This city... Zootopia was chemical, a churning, intoxicating cocktail of people and sights and sounds. It was in Judy's blood the moment she'd stepped off the train three years ago. Zootopia had sass, Zootopia had style. It was the kind of place where you knew exactly where you were going until you turned a corner and bam, suddenly the city was a labyrinth again, beckoning you forward with the promise of wonder. This city had made her feel like an ant among giants. This city had made her feel like a giant among ants and Judy would be damned before she let someone offend its honour. She struggled to condense that indescribable swell of emotion into a workable sentence.

"Zootopia is my home mom. Sure it isn't perfect but I love it here. And we work to make it a safer place every day." It was a bit lame and unfortunately it seemed Bonnie was going to fight for this, tooth and paw.

"I respect that dear," she simpered, "but really, I still think the best place for you is on the farm, with your family. Just look at your neighbours! I mean, we could have missed your engagement! We _didn't_ -" Judy felt a twinge of guilt penetrate her exasperation - "but we _could have_. If it were still up to me you'd be on the first train home." Normally Judy would be aggravated beyond belief that this same argument had come up _again_ , but right now all she felt was a mounting sense of dread. It'd be just like Nick to interject now, to try to defend her honour. He knew she hated it, but she knew sometimes he couldn't help himself. And right now? Right now she wouldn't blame him. Her parents had brought sledgehammers to a house of glass.

"Calm down hun," interjected Stu, and Judy felt a rush of affection towards her dad, "not sayin' I don't agree with you, but Judy's her own girl now. She gets to make her own decisions. Even," he coughed pointedly,"even if they aren't... thought out." _Dammit._ That was Nick's strike two. He was counting on his paws, Judy knew it. "Seriously though, Judes. You might want to think about moving out of this neighbourhood. This is a nice place n'all, but there are a lot of predators around." Judy felt the affection curdle into embarrassment. "Y'know, untrustworthy types," Stu continued, completely unaware of the massive hole he was digging. _Any moment now..._

"I agree," chimed in her mother peevishly, lending another paw to the excavation, "personally I don't wonder why your friend was worried about her ring being stolen - there are probably dozens of foxes about-" _Aaand that was strike three_.

"Damn." Judy sighed, slumping back in her chair.

"Can I come out now?" Nick's voice issued from the bedroom, right on cue, his tone even but lacking its usual verve. _Come on Nick, hold it together baby..._ Mr Hopps almost fell out of his chair, and Mrs Hopps screeched like a banshee.

"Yup." said Judy, rubbing her temples wearily. Nick emerged, auburn fur still slightly haphazard and haloed in gold, just as it had been six months ago, wearing his customary devil-may-care smile. But it was fake; the one he used to build a wall between him and the rest of the world. Judy had seen him smile enough times, made him smile enough times to know when it was fake. Mrs Hopps screeched again, louder this time. Mr Hopps toppled like a bowling pin. "Mom, please; control yourself." murmured Judy, rubbing her ears gingerly. Her father, seemingly hell-bent on inadvertently pushing Nick to breaking point, sprang up indignantly.

"Who the hell are you? I demand you get out of my daughter's apartment!" Nick grinned wider. He did look remarkably like a crocodile, Judy thought with a shiver.

Well, seeing as it's actually _our_ apartment, I don't think you have the right to order me out of my own home." He strolled forward and came to rest by Judy's side. Very carefully, Nick bent over and kissed her gently on the forehead, oblivious to their audience's looks of terror. "Permission?" he whispered softly. And that made her smile. Even after all that, he still wouldn't drop her in the shit if she wasn't ready. Time to own up to her mistakes.

"Granted." She whispered back, and he kissed her again, on the mouth this time. She could feel his smile, a real smile, the kind only she could get from him, through the contact. Her mother seemed to be struggling to breathe. Her father had turned a shade of red that put her own beetroot to shame.

"WHO ARE YOU?!" He thundered. Nick turned and studied him interestedly.

"My name is Nick Wilde, ZPD. Pleasure to meet you. Oh, and by the way, I'm your daughter's fiance." And with that he sauntered out of the apartment. He needed some coffee.

Judy waited for the hammer to fall. She had expected to feel terrible but now it was done, now it was out in the open she felt curiously light, like as great burden had been lifted. She cracked her knuckles expectantly as her parents' gobsmacked faces turned to greet her. Just another press conference. She'd worked real hard to get good at those.

"Questions please."


	2. Chapter 2

**DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING**

 **23rd June 2000**

 **Dearest Nicholas,**

 **I realise this isn't going to be easy for you to hear. My hands are shaking so badly I can barely get the words down. Would you believe this is my fifth attempt at writing this? I kept losing my nerve; I'm going to miss my little trooper like a child misses their blanket. But I need to speak my mind. Because we've come to a crossroads, you and I, and I'm so sorry, Nicholas. So, so sorry but I just can't stand it anymore. I need to get out while I still can. So I'm leaving. This house, this city, this life. Please, I need you to understand...**

 **...**

Nick was feeling pretty damn pleased with himself, thanks very much. Until he felt cold steel bite into his neck.

Up until then he'd been on top of the world. The birds were chirping, the bees were buzzing... Normally this kind of picture postcard morning - _Greetings from the Utopia Zootopia_ \- would make him nauseous, but not today. Today he was too distracted by the wonderful floating sensation in his chest. He should have known not to make the fatal mistake of being optimistic; life had an unnerving habit of grounding his happiness to dust.

So there he was: louging against a wall in the coner, sipping his morning coffee and munching at a bagel, basking in the glory of one-upping Judy's parents, when karma reared its ugly head and some asshole had the nerve to put a knife to his throat.

"Top o' the morning to you, Nicky boy," a canine voice snarled in his ear, and Nick felt the stagnant odour of rotting flesh wash over him. Do _n't_ gag, don't gag...

"Wow," he managed to splutter, "can you say halitosis?" There was a vehement hiss from behind, accompanied by a sharp flash of the knife. He winced. Right. Probably best not to play the smart-ass with someone who can paint the sidewalk with your innards. He briefly wondered why none of the chattering Zootopians had noticed the knife :From his perspective it was pretty hard to miss.

"Good to see you ain't lost none of your sense of humor," the voice growled, "though it won't do you much good where we're going." This was achingly farmiliar, but trying to match a face to the voice was like trying to catch water with his bare paws. Whoever it was, they'd chosen their spot well: being backed up against a wall and draped in shadow as they were meant no one was likely to catch the glint of the blade. Besides, Nick thought grouchily, this was the Utopia Zootopia and nothing bad _ever_ happened here.

"Do I know you?"

"You don't remember your old pal Finn?" the voice cackled, "Come now, Nicky. I heard the badge made people soft, but I never pegged you for one of those types."Finn? Finn who?

 _Oh... Oh God, no._ Nick's heart leapt into huis mouth. It couldn't be _him_ , could it? He was just a phantasm, a relic from his old life - one that could still wake him up in a cold sweat...

"Gone all quiet on me, have you boy?"

"Yeah, sorry about that. It's just that after a while all you scumbags blend into one continuous streak of moron." Nick retorted, and this time almost cried out as the knife's icy edge grazed his chin.

"Fox gets a badge and thinks he's above everyone else. You'll get what's coming to you Nicky, don't worry; old Finn won't let you down..." the wolfhound let out a mirthless chuckle that set Nick's teeth on edge. Damn his loose tongue. _But this is good_ , asserted a voice in the back of his head, the one not over-ridden by the deluge of emotions coursing through his body. The one that remembered the stodgy hostage negotiation seminar Judy had forced him to sit through a few months ago. _Keep the captor busy, keep him talking._ There had also been something in there about not pissing them off, but he brushed the thought away. _Focus_.

"So what is it you want? Money? Jewels? A breath mint?"

"Oh, nothing quite so grand. All we really want is you, Nicky-boy." His stomach was tying itself in knots, but Nick couldn't let it show. Not if he wanted to get out of this still breathing. He scanned the plaza, taking in the sparkling ice cream truck, the scores of chattering mammals mulling about the cafes, the pair of mares horsing around in a corner.

His eyes alighted on five shifty looking mammals in really tacky trench coats. And Judy said _he_ had terrible fashion sense. They were all strapped, but more important was their positioning. Finn had set them out like pieces on a chessboard; all the exits were covered. _This is wrong_. Finn was a respectable criminal, but he didn't have enough brains to fill an egg cup. There were bigger forces at play here...

Had to keep him talking.

"After all those years wading through this city's smut,this what you've come to? You should have got out while you still could, Finn."

"You've got no right take the high-and-mighty with me, boy! As I recall, you led our plunge into those filthy depths!" _Yeah, and three years later I'm still trying to wash the dirt away._

From the outside Nick looked deceptively calm, but internally a silent battle was being waged as two core aspects of his personality butted heads. Half of him, the half that had fought its way through Zootopia's seething underbelly every waking moment for as long as he could remember, wanted to run. Create a distraction, seize the moment and bolt back to the apartment where he'd be safe. The other half, the foolish, noble half that had coerced him into becoming a police officer - the half that Judy Hopps had fallen in love with - knew that any escape attempt would endanger civilian lives.

He could imagine it now; lounging at a cafe with your family, not a care in the world. And wondering why, why God did it have to be me as the bullets ripped through your chest. Watching the blood seep through your shirt like blooming roses.

 _Crap. I hope you're proud, Carrots_.

...

It was all the ring's fault. Judy Hopps sighed for what felt like the billionth time that day, and massaged her forehead in a fruitless attempt to work out the maddening ache that was building up behind her left temple. Deep down she knew all the blame circled back to her, but she was feeling very put-upon just now and all that resentment had to go somewhere. So she glowered at the dainty band of gold clasped so snugly round her finger; she should never have slipped it back on. Any attempt at discretion was worthless; the ring couldn't have been more distracting if it got up and did a tap-dance on the table.

"A fox? Of all things a _fox_ , Judy? This is outrageous!" wailed her mother for what also seemed like the billionth time that day. Judy cringed. She'd been trying so hard to be nice, to curb the shock, but she could only stretch so far. _Grit your teeth and keep your cool..._

"That's not exactly fair. I'm sure you'd like him if you just let me explai-"

"It's really not on, Judes." grumbled her father. However there wasn't much conviction behind his words; Mr Hopps had yelled himself hoarse ten minutes in and, Judy suspected, was now on autopilot. Not her mother though. Mrs Hopps was a connoisseur of long-winded arguments: Her mind-numbing tirades could last days if you weren't careful. And Judy hadn't exactly been treading on eggshells recently.

"Words can't describe how disappointed I am in you, young lady!" her mother ranted on, "Getting engaged to and moving in with a mammal we've never even met?"

Judy wanted Nick there. It felt stupid and childish; she knew he'd be rubbing salt in an open wound, but that didn't stop her longing for his easygoing presence, his crackling wit. He'd lean in close; his lips would brush her fur and she'd shiver like they were coated in winter frost. He'd whisper something secret; for her ears only, he'd used to chuckle. They'd giggle like schoolkids and he'd give her this look; this penetrating, x-ray stare that made her feel real, like she was important and safe and _needed_ , not some ant to be stepped on. But then her parents would've fired up again and there would've been shouting and screaming... No. This mess was her responsibility.

"I know."Judy began imploringly, "I know it's all my fault and honestly I'm really sorry, but if you'd just let me explai-"

"Honey, I don't think you understand how... how _deep_ all of this goes," Mrs Hopps cut through her daughter's words like a knife. The younger bunny could feel the strain throbbing angrily behind her temple. Heedless of the obvious warning signs Bonnie ploughed onwards, adopting a tone one would use to address a particularly challenging six year-old; "I know this must be confusing for you, honey, but this kind of behaviour really isn't healthy. You could hurt yourself, and those around you!"

It was about then that Judy snapped. To hell with damage control. To hell with being _cute_.

"You're a complete hypocrite!" she exploded, incredulity dripping from every syllable, "not one hour ago, when you didn't even know who I was engaged to you were gushing about how romantic the whole thing was! It's only now that you know he's a fox that you've become so disapproving! You think that after three years on the police force that the risks of this - this life never crossed my mind? I'm not a little kid anymore! So how about, just for the sake of variety, you actually hear my side of the story?" Bonnie opened her mouth to fire back, but caught herself when Stu lay a placatng hand on her shoulder.

"Hrmph" she said, and settled for glaring at her daughter, eyes smouldering like coals.

"So," Stu began apologetically, "How did you two meet?"

"Frank, Frank come quick! The old windbag's finally stopped blowing; it's about to get interesting again!" came a hoarse whisper from the kitchen wall. With a speed that spoke of months of practice, Judy seized a heavy looking boot from the floor and hefted it at the tiles with all her strength. It collided with an ear-splitting bang; the eavesdropper squealed like a baby and beat a hasty retreat.

"I met Nick almost as soon as I started work," she started. Her mother's mouth was a single, bitter line, but Judy found she no longer cared. "he helped me solve my first case. Without him I would never have made it past week one."

"And did you -" Stu coughed embarassedly - "did you l- like him?" He avoided saying 'love' like it was a disgusting swear word.

"At first? God no; he was an ass." she laughed, eyes sparkling "But... I don't know. I fell in love like you fall asleep; slowly at first, then all at once."

 _'All at once' had been a sting operation on a drug cartel run by a family of poison dart frogs. It was her first time working with narcotics and Judy had felt invincible, darting through showers of bullets and broken glass, Nick keeping pace at her side. Then there had been a crack, like bone splintering, and the next second Nick wasn't there anymore._

 _It had nearly killed her, looking back; she was so lucky not to have been hit. But that didn't matter, none of it mattered. All she could see was the dead fox crumpled on the concrete. All she could hear was this thundering maelstrom, a riptide of emotion that swept her away, and she was lost... Judy was kneeling beside him, crouched over his body, protecting it. How had she got there? She didn't know. Somewhere far away she could hear crying. Someone was crying. Only later would she realise it had been her. Then she'd felt the dead pressure of a gun against her head, and she'd been yanked upwards, listless, unflinching. Didn't they know she didn't care? Couldn't they see she was already dying, deep inside? She looked into the pale face of death with no fear. No emotion at all._

 _But then there had been a bang. And then another, and another. As one she and the frog stared down at the line of tranquilizer darts marching up his chest. The frog looked back up, and only then seemed to realise he was unconscious. He collapsed like a house of cards. Strong arms wrapped themselves around her and suddenly her face was pressed against Nick's fur, breathing in Nick's scent. Feeling the rigid body armour under his uniform._

 _They'd argued for hours afterwards; she'd raged and stormed at him for being so stupid, playing dead like a possum. He'd erupted at her for believing him, for putting her life on the line when she knew it was an act. And Judy knew he was right, knew it was idiotic for her to forget the armour. But he didn't seem to understand that he'd come a hair's breadth from dying. He was a cop because of her - she'd never be able to live with herself..._

 _In the end she'd kissed him just to shut him up. And hey, when he started tearing her clothes off, who was she to complain?_

"And you realise how... _risky_ this is, don't you?" Stu laid a hand on her arm, snapping her out of her stupor.

"Wha-? Oh, come on dad, he's about as deadly as a marshmallow!"

"Marshmallows are a horrendous choking hazard." muttered her mother darkly, and Judy had to bite her fist to stop herself from giggling.

"That's not the whole picture, Judes. Predator and prey... They're not meant to be together," maintained her father stubbornly, "and it ain't just us that think that way. If I were a bettin' man I'd put my best dollar on a lot of city folks feelin' agreeable. it's ... unnatural." Judy had to stem the stream of expletives she desperately wanted to let loose.

"Isn't that the whole point of Zootopia? Predator and prey living together in harmony?" _Once in a blue moon_ , the realist in her muttered, worming its way into her head. _Maybe dad has a point_. "Besides," she rushed on, refusing to give the little parasite the satisfaction of listening to it, "maybe... maybe I like dangerous."

"But this is exactly what I mean Judy!" cried Bonnie, leaping back into the fray, "This city... Zootopia has made you wild and it's dangerous. Whatever happened to the little girl I raised?" She grew up, thought Judy. But she couldn't voice that aloud, not without pushing them over the edge...

"I'm in no more danger than any other officer!"

"And what about that fox?" Mrs Hopps sniffed derisively.

"Nick's spent his whole life avoiding trouble, skirting round the edges. He's had to because some people -" she glared pointedly at her parents - "would never believe he was innocent if he did get involved in something." she tactfully omitted the part about him being a (reformed) career criminal. " Trust me, he's the least of your worrie-"

 _Brrriiinnnggg_

"Excuse me," said Judy, and gratefully scooped up her phone. "Hello?"

"Hi sweetheart," Nick replied cheerfully, "how's it going?"

"Not bad" she chirped, "well, about as good as expected."

"That's good. So I don't get to eat anyone?"

"Nick!" She scolded, glad he couldn't see her twinkling eyes.

"Just checking." he soothed. "So; you know I love you, right?" Judy sighed theatrically.

"Yes, bottlebrush."

"Great. Anyway, I just thought I'd let you know that I'm being kidnapped."

"WHAT?!" Judy shrieked, rocketing to her feet.

"Yeah, annoying I know," Nick continued merrily, "anyways, I just thought you'd better tell Bogo I might have to take a personal day tomorrow - " He was cut off by a frenzy of gruff grunts and growls. There was a sharp crackle. After what felt like an agonising eternity someone finally spoke again and Judy let out a breath she hadn't realised she'd been holding. But it wasn't Nick. This voice was little more than a rasping hiss. like a blade over a whetstone. A chill ran down her spine as thousands of years of survival instinct sent her heart into overdrive and alarm bells blaring in her head. _Danger, stay away_. But there at the eye of the storm was another thought, more potent and powerful than any archaic impulse could ever be: _Protect Nick._

"Good evening mi'lady." the voice oozed, "Hope you don't mind but we need your boyfriend here to settle some old scores. Got unfinished business, Nicky and I." Judy felt pitch black hatred flood her system, drowning everything else out. "Don't bother looking for us, we're too well hidden." For a brief, heartstopping moment Judy was a statue. Then a smile slowly spread over her face. If the speaker had seen it he would've had nightmares for weeks.

"No." she said in a voice of hardened steel, eyes glinting like a wolf's.

"Eh?"

"You're wrong: I don't look, I hunt. So you run. Go ahead; run until your feet bleed, and then keep going. But it won't make any difference because I'm telling you now, as a warning; there is no force in Hevean or Hell that will ever stop me getting to him. So run if it makes you feel better, but it won't make a difference. I'm still coming for you." There was a pause. Then a click. And the line went dead.

...

The silence in the car was deafening. Nick's friendly neighbourhood kidnapper gwarped at the phone in his paws like it had just punched his grandmother. Hearing Judy's voice again, as warm as it had ever been was like a shot of adrenaline. Nick had felt everything around him fade out to black: All of a sudden it didn't matter that he was sandwiched between a pair of burly llamas with personal hygiene issues. It didn't matter that his claustrophobia was needling at him so much he couldn't think straight. Her voice was like an anchor, holding him steady on a tempestuous sea. Plus their faces were priceless. He didn't even realise he was laughing until Finn turned to face him with a face like thunder.

"What's so funny?" snarled the wolfhound, shoving his face into Nick's. On second thoughts, describing it as a 'face' might have been too generous: Every time the car passed through a patch of sunshine Finn's scars were thrown into sharp relief so he looked like a living, breathing hunk of mincemeat . This charming view, coupled with the very real possibility that the next time he saw Judy his head might not be attatched to his body meant it was taking all he had to keep his bagel down. Still, Finn didn't need to know that. So Nick beamed back affably, right in his mutilated mug.  
"It's just..." he paused, breathless, "it's good to know I'm not the only one she scares." and trailed off into another fit of sniggers. Finn bared his fangs in a gruesome attempt at a smile.

"Quite the vixen you've got yourself there, I'll give you that. But she's got a snowball's chance in Hell of finding us where we're going. You and I'll have plenty of time to stroll down memory lane." So he needs to know where I stashed it. Nick thought with satisfaction. So I'm safe. But let's see how far we can push it...

"If you're so untouchable, why were you scared?" he asked innocently, and received a spray of foul smelling saliva as a reply.

"Ewww, do you know how _unsanitary_ that is?" whined one of the llamas, whipping out a dainty handkerchief and delicately dabbing at the globules clinging to his shirt.

"I'm disgusted!" declared the other haughtily, "Just disgusted!"

Well this was going to be fun...

...

 **I will keep your secrets, Nicholas. I'll take them to the grave with me; they will never know. But this is it. One last lie, on top of all the others that I bare for you. Sometimes I hear them whisper to me, you know. They creep and slither and stalk in the dead of night, when everything else is sleeping. Those nights are endless. They're killing me Nicholas, don't you see? We're building ourselves a tomb, you and I, one stone at a time. I'm not saying it's your fault. Your father, Lord have pity on his soul, laid the foundations. And I, your willing partner. In crime. That's why I have to leave. I hope that this will be enough to shock you off the ruinous path you seem so determined to follow. Is that so crazy? Am I?**

 **Love always and forever,**

 **MOM**

 **A/N: OK, so first of all I'd just like to thank everyone who's got this far for your outstanding perseverence. I've loved writing all my life and to know I have an audience is so inspiring. As I never intended for this to be a multi-chapter story, this one was mostly setting up the main dramatic drive and over-arching plot.I've had dozens of ideas for lines and scenes, so I hope you stick around to see them come to fruition.**

 **P.S. If anyone could give me writing tips ore recomend areas of focus it would be much appriciated.**


	3. Chapter 3

You really know you're in trouble when you can't tell if your eyes are closed. Nick groaned groggily and twisted himself, marooned in that disorienting rut between consciousness and sleep. It felt like someone was sucking out his brain through his earhole and his mouth tasted like a scorpion's nest and there was something hard digging into his back. He tried to remember what had happened; where he was and how he'd got there, but the memories eluded him like smoke on the wind. Judy wasn't here, he knew that. She radiated heat like a fluffy water bottle, and right now he was freezing.

Time to attempt speech. Something direct and to the point. _Help_ came to mind. Nick opened his mouth, but his treacherous lips wouldn't let the words pass

"Mmrrmrmph." Classy. What was he, a drunken warthog?.

 _OK. Time to open your eyes, Nick. Come on, it's easy. One, two, three!_ Nothing happened and he couldn't say he was surprised. Between them Judy was unequivocally the morning person. Nick was the antithesis of those weirdos; most days it took the better part of two hours and three coffees to get him even remotely functional. Unfortunately he didn't have the luxury of two hours and three coffees. With tremendous effort his eyes cracked open; he looked around and instantly regretted it.

The stink was what hit him first, like a freight train; a pervading, toxic stench that rampaged up his nostrils and pricked at his eyes. It was like a group of flatulent hogs after eating nothing but vinadloo for six months straight.

 _Ugh._

Nick was so floored by the smell he almost didn't notice how bad everything else was. Then he realised just how deep in the shit he'd been dropped. A pair of handcuffs chafed at his wrists, tethering him to a foldable metal chair. This was definitely a lot less fun than the last time he'd been handcuffed. As for the room, well... he had no idea what it was like. The space hung long and low like a bunker, stretching away in all directions with the walls and ceiling cloaked in this muddy, clinging gloom. Nick glanced upwards, but all he could make out were these twisting, tapering strips of _something_ , twirling gracefully like leaves in an autumn breeze. The one directly above his head looked disturbingly like a hangman's noose.

He was not alone. Standing sentinel some way to the right was a hulking figure, cloaked in shadow. Nick felt his bowels turn to water, but he'd be damned if he was going to play the docile little kit.

"So are you gonna kill me or just practice your evil leer?" Thank God he wasn't spouting gibberish. No response from the Incredible Bulk, though. "Hey you, lard lad, what the hell's going on here?"

"You've dug yourself in too deep this time Nicky," It replied in a voice like a landslide, "and now your secrets are cavin' in around you"

"Do I know you?" A bulb flickered on, a harsh electrical luminescence that made Nick's eyes water. The mountain lumbered into the pool of light and recognition dawned. "Benny?!"

'It' was a mole, but his fur was so thickly matted with clods of earth they distorted his form; he looked like a half-finished clay sculpture. His face was mostly obscured by the thickest pair of goggles Nick had ever seen, fused to his face by several layers of dirt, and a moustache the approximate size and shape of a dead hamster. To top it all off, jammed tight onto his head was a ridiculously miniscule, fluorescent yellow hard hat. Benny blinked slowly, adjusting to the sudden brightness. "Wow," Nick continued, "First the muscle and now the getaway driver. It's a regular reunion of the old gang."

"Finn wants to know where you hid it, Nicky. I've been sent in to try and calm your nerves, appeal to your better nature."

"Pfftt. You've been sent here to rile me up."

"Calm down, Nicky. You've gotta see how - how futile this all is, right? One way or another, we're gonna unearth the truth." Nick didn't want to calm down please. He wanted to tear right through his restraints and knock the treacherous swine into next week. Maybe he could use Benny as leverage to save his own hide? No. He wanted to get back to Judy, but that annoying do-gooder voice needed him to stay put. To see how far down this rabbit hole went... Ha. Rabbit pun. Judy would kill him.

For a while they just stared at each other. Nick was reminded stupidly of a Mexican standoff from an old Western. He half expected a dustball to come skitting across the floor.

A chain rattled somewhere in the dark and a door scraped open; a slot of deeper, purer darkness superimposed over shadow. Nick forced himself to relax - _They need me alive, they need me alive_ \- when Finn strode into the light, taking a seat opposite, and relaxing got real hard.

Time had not treated him well. The wolfhound lurking in Nick's memory was a lean, sinewy machine of a mammal capable of chasing down a cheetah in the bat of an eyelid. This... This was a pale, twisted reflection of that animal, looking more like a skeleton than anything. Fur was falling off of him in wispy clumps, and underneath Nick could see milky white skin drawn too tight over his ecimated figure. Honestly he looked half dead, and if he didn't hate his guts so much Nick would've felt sorry for the guy. The years hadn't touched his eyes though, there was nothing wrong with those. They glittered like black marbles, set into sunken sockets. Nick could see the malice behind those eyes, hear the cogs turning. Finn sighed and his claws curled around the armrests like spiders.

"Listen, Nicky, I don't want to get off on the wrong foot here-"

"Yeah, 'cause this is five-star hospitality right here." Nick said scathingly, tugging at the handcuff again for emphasis. Finn paused and flashed him an appealing smile that made his stomach turn.

"Me and you, we've found ourselves in a mutually beneficial situation: I need information that you have. You need me to let you live. So; you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours-"

"I realised you were going to torture me, but I didn't think I'd have to sit here and listen to you talk. Can I die now?" He was pushing his luck well beyond breaking point, but Nick needed a way to regain control. To remind himself he still had a chance...

"Silence!" Finn barked, "I need this score, so you're going to tell us where you hid it or we'll start breaking things. Namely you."

"You must really be scraping the bottom of the barrel to come to me." Nick sneered. Finn sneered right back, sending disgusting ripples over his half-destroyed face.

"You weren't my first choice, trust me. But I got debts, Nicky. To guys who don't take no for an answer. I don't pay up and they'll start carving up the people I care about. Starting with my mother." Ouch. That took the wind right out of his sails. What should he do? It was fuzzy, but Nick remembered Mrs Hunter, a doting old lady whose only crime was being related to Finn. The image in his head warped; Mrs Hunter was no longer standing but lying prone on the floor, eyes closed and moaning pitifully, face encrusted with her own dried blood. He knew that underneath she bore scars identical to her son's...

Could he really put someone through that? For the first time ever both sides of him agreed and Nick hated himself for it; he couldn't tell Finn what he knew. The survivor was dead certain Finn would kill him as soon as he had what he needed. Even if he didn't, Nick would be in even deeper shit once Finn's 'employer' got his hands on what he was hiding. His best chance would be to sit tight and run his mouth, to endure whatever hell they had in store until Judy showed up to save him.

The newer, fresh-faced cop was thinking about the city. About the people going about their everyday lives right above his head. He remembered his training, those muzzletime conversations with Judy that had gone on for hours, and made him fall asleep halfway through the day more than once. She'd never stopped talking about how important it was to think about the greater good, to serve the needs of the many. After a while he'd joked he wanted removable ears just to shut her up, but what she said had struck a powerful chord with him. As always. Judy was the only one that could get him to think about animals besides himself. She was the only one worth slowing down for...

Even if he didn't have faith in Zootopia, even if he didn't have faith in himself, he still had faith in her. She would find him.

"I - I'm sorry, but I can't tell you where it is. If Zootopia got even a taste..."

Finn's forced calm burned away like tissue paper. "So you're just gonna let my mother die?! I knew you were cold, Nick, but that's low, even for you."

"We won't let her die! Let me go and we'll get her protective custody -"

"You know that shit's worth as much as a snake's promise -"

"- my partner, she can help you , we can find these guys and stop them!" It sounded weak; Nick was grasping at straws and Finn knew it.

"I never thought it'd happen, but you've actually gone and done it. Become one of them. Hiding behind the badge, the faux self-righteousness. You disgusting _pet_! Just because you don't give a damn about your mother doesn't mean you should let mine die!"

Nick's heart turned to stone in an instant. "Leave my mother out of this."

"I hope we can, Nicky. I really hope we can..."

...

The scene before her was uncomfortably familiar, and staggeringly disparate all at once. Tape had been rolled out, markers were scattered around the plaza like in a colouring book, waiting impatiently for Judy to join the dots and see the bigger picture. But she might as well have been blindfolded, because right now she only had room for a single thought, reverberating around her head:

 _"Maybe I like dangerous."_

She'd sounded like a child throwing a tantrum. Something bitter burned the back of her throat.

"Judy honey? I need you to focus now, OK?" _No, mom. Leave me alone. Haven't you done enough damage for one day?_ Shit. Nick needed her. With a huge force of will Judy pulled herself back from the brink and looked up. It wasn't her mom; instead the haggard face of a vulture swam into view. Double shit. It was Candace Kettle, the overworked local pathologist. If she was here that meant Bogo thought... No. She wasn't even going to consider it. Time to get to work.

"OK... OK, what've we got?" she asked, trying to sound perky and upbeat. Moping around would only condemn Nick to unknowable horrors, so she tried to think happy thoughts and devote herself to scouring the crime scene:

\- They'd got nothing but a snowstorm from the CCTV cameras because someone had tunnelled down and spliced the electrical circuits,

\- There were no additional casualties,

\- And typically, not one of the forty-six mammals present at the time of incident had seen so much as a jaywalker.

Unsurprisingly this news wasn't doing Judy's 'happy thoughts' mantra any favours. She began mentally reciting the standardised arrest caution in a futile attempt to stop herself spinning grisly theories that all seemed to end in her crouching over a tombstone engraved with the name _Nicholas P Wilde._

 _You do not have to say anything. But it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence. You do not have to say anythi-_

"Detective? I think I've found something!" shouted an uniformed tiger eagerly, and she was there like a shot. What was that? On the floor by that café, blighting the creamy white tiles was a dark stain. It told Judy tales of murderous intent, it bragged about the hideous tortures that awaited the mammal she loved most in the world... Wait. It was a lump of mud. Judy simultaneously wanted to cry with relief and punch the excited expression right off the officer's face.

"Congratulations. You found some dirt." she deadpanned. The officer's face fell, but he refused to let it go.

"There's nothing like it anywhere in the vicinity and the closest houses with gardens are at least twenty blocks away; this is connected somehow, I can feel it!"

"So you're saying Ni- Officer Wilde was kidnapped by who - a psychopathic gardener?" The image of a wizened old goat brandishing a rusty pair of hedge clippers sprang to the forefront of her mind. "What happened, they get sick of killing weeds and move on to bigger fish?" What was she doing? This wasn't like her. It wasn't a million years ago that she'd been in this tiger's shoes, having a viable theory shot down by a superior. Besides, she had to remember she was the new kid on the block again: first rabbit detective. She needed to get the new uniforms on side, which meant burning bridges before they were even built was a really stupid move. Judy immediately apologised and conceded to have the dirt bagged as evidence; beggars couldn't be choosers after all.

At this point it was clear the plaza had yielded all its secrets and the CSI bloodhounds were busy packing up. With a sickening jolt Judy realised she'd been completely neglecting her parents; Bonnie and Stu stood several feet away, deeply engrossed in conversation with Candace. Great. Because Candace spilling all Judy's dirty secrets was what she really needed right now.

"Hey guys, what's up?" she asked brightly, hurrying over.

"Oh, nothing much dear," said Bonnie, barely glancing her way, "We were just discussing the best way to prevent excessive moulting, Candace here has a rather bad case, I'm afraid."

"You didn't try the ointment I recommended?" Judy asked, genuinely concerned. Candace shook her head dourly.

"I never got round to it. But-"

"So." interrupted Bonnie, in a voice that promised divine retribution, "Candace, did you know about Judy and Nicholas Wilde getting engaged?" The vulture's face went stony. Judy felt her heart take a nosedive.

"I didn't." The silence that followed went on for an eternity. Then the vulture's face split into an ecstatic grin: "Why didn't you tell us you sly bunny?! You know we had a pool going at the morgue? I lost twenty dollars betting Nick would wait until after Christmas!" Bonnie's satisfied smirk withered quicker than you could blink. Stu looked stunned.

"You don't think it's, um, questionable? Not only an interspecies relationship, but one between predator and prey?"

"Oh no, they're just the cutest; constantly flirting. To be honest I think more people were put off by the age gap than anything..." Well that was a white lie. Only a handful of officers actually knew about Judy and Nick's 'situation'; for obvious reasons they'd tried to keep it as low-key as possible. But as they rode back to the precinct Judy was impressed by Candace's commitment to her story; the way she was yammering on about _Nick this_ and _Judy that_ would've fooled anyone. Any officer worth their salt lived in fear of ever having to confront Candace's impeccable poker face in the interrogation room, and Judy was rather enjoying herself until the vulture's beady gaze fell on her. "So you want to explain why you were tearing that poor tiger a new one?"

"That? Oh, that was nothing I just... overreacted, that's all." Judy would've been quite happy to leave it at that, but Candace was as persistent as she was observant.

"So it had nothing to do with the fact your fiancé's been kidnapped? Girl, I know you're trying to toughen up in front of your parents, but if you bottle all that emotion up like that it's gonna eat you from the inside out."

"I know, I... Making crappy quips is one of Nick's defence mechanisms and I guess it's starting to rub off on me, I -" her heart was jackhammering right out of her chest. What if she never saw him again? What if her parents had been right about Zootopia, about its dangers and she'd just been too blinded by her happy-go-lucky fantasy to see it? "Shit Candace, it feels like there's this bottomless pit in my stomach and I can't -" Judy took a deep, steadying breath. If she carried on like this the floodgates would open and she'd dissolve into blubbering mess. No help to anyone, least of all Nick.

Fortunately, Candace had never been one to pry. She left Judy to her thoughts. It had started to rain, and Judy spent the journey staring at her distorted reflection in the rain studded passenger window, begging it for answers.

...

The sights and smells of the Zootopia police department greeted Judy like an old friend. She forged her way through the throng already clogging up the lobby, her parents in tow. She spied Clawhauser trying to coral a group of jabbering gibbons into interview rooms. Good luck to him; hysterical gibbons were world-famous for their incoherence.

There was something about the hustle and bustle of this place that revitalised her. Nick had always resented the noise; he said it was the thick, sticky kind that followed you home if you let it, but Judy didn't mind. Watching the toing and froing of the officers and their quarry was fascinating to her. They made the building pulse with energy and sometimes she'd be content to sit at her desk for hours on end, ears swivelling like radar dishes, simply listening. After the nightmare of that morning, the usual buzz was like a soothing balm.

She and her parents picked her way through the sea of drunken yobos and sour faced hoodlums, trying to reach her desk in the far corner, when their way was blocked by a very angry pot-bellied camel. It took a moment for Judy to notice he was angry however, chiefly because of his rather distracting lack of underwear. In fact, to say he had no underwear on just didn't do the job. His lack of underwear seemed to fill the world, and there was no way you could pass by and not notice an enormous lack of something - e.g. underwear. It was supremely unsettling; Mrs Hopps yelped like she'd been scalded with boiling water, and Mr Hopps tastefully averted his eyes. At this point however Judy had enough experience with Zootopia's naturalist club not to flinch. Over the years they'd developed a rather unfortunate bond with her, like she was their favourite school teacher, and kept springing up at the most awkward moments possible.

"Can I help you?" she inquired.

"Detective Hopps, tell these officers they need to chill out." he said - it was definitely a he, there could be no doubt about that - gesturing to a pair of pale-faced leopards weaving their way through the crowd.

"I'm afraid I can't do that. It may be... restrictive, but unfortunately wearing clothes is the law." Judy replied, trying to sound deeply regretful for his sake.

"They're crushing my free spirit!" the camel bleated balefully.

"Yeah, sorry about that. But like I say it's the la..." she petered out. The two leopards had caught up with the naturalist and were leading him away, trying to look anywhere but down. From this angle his bloated stomach made him look pregnant...

 _"What do you call a three humped camel? Pregnant!"_

Judy couldn't breathe; it felt like a stake had been driven right through her heart. She rushed over to her desk and hunkered down, trying to escape the swelling tide of memory and emotion.

 _Last Christmas Nick had got her inducted into the naturalist club without her knowing. A whole menagerie of them turned up on her doorstep that weekend, not a stitch between them. Her blubbering protests had been drowned out by the gales of laughter from the living room; it took three hours to shoo them away and by that point she was ready to wring the damn fox's neck. The red mist had descended and she'd given chase around the kitchen, pelting him with wads of paper and insults that would turn her mother white as a sheet. He'd just laughed; that damn infectious laugh that always managed to melt her heart like butter. But not this time. She'd tackled him the ground and they'd scrabbled and rolled on the carpet, giggling like little kids. Suddenly he was on top of her and his mouth was on hers and passion exploded across her tongue like the juices of an exotic fruit and then an entirely different kind of mist descended..._

A distraction materialised in the form of chief Bogo. The chief was fuming silently. Judy wasn't particularly shocked; this was more or less his general state of being. The boys in the locker room had invented a special 'Bogo Scale' to measure the foulness of his mood, and right now Judy judged him to be at about a simmering six. There was another office poll on which officer would finally make his heart explode (the smart money was on Nick in about two months on the outside).

"Can I help you, sir?"

Ooh. Barely four words and already things had escalated to an enraged eight.

"Follow me, now." Bogo ordered curtly, marching off to his office. Judy trailed behind. The chief had singled her out for persecution since day one, and she really couldn't waste time getting needlessly berated - she needed to be pulling on threads and chasing leads...

...

Stu was worried. This in itself wasn't particularly new; devoting all his time to the farm and around three hundred kids had its drawbacks. In fact, he found he couldn't remember a time when he wasn't gnawing at his lip because the harvest was late, or little Jackson had managed to get a carrot stuck up his nose again. But this was different. Stu could work around bad weather and he'd long since resigned himself to the fact that Jackson would never stop until he'd determined how many vegetables he could fit up one nostril. This was completely different. For the first time in his life, Stu found himself floundering without an answer. He couldn't spray Judy with pesticide to shoo the fox away, he couldn't replant her like a turnip and, Stu was fairly sure, he couldn't use a pair of nose tweezers to prise the fox away.

Stu sat at Judy's over cluttered desk, mulling things over glumly. He felt... desperately inadequate. The most outrageous thing any of his other three hundred offspring had done was decide _not_ to farm carrots. Imagine! Some blather about not wanting to live in the family shadow. And Stu had accepted that well enough, but Judy? Not only had she gone off to the city to be a police officer, not only was she adamant she couldn't settle down and start her own warren like every other rabbit under the sun, now she was engaged to a - a _fox_? He should have ended this before it had started, put his foot down when she'd applied for training. He and Bonnie both agreed, this place was unhealthy for her. Zootopia was a - a whirlpool, sucking their daughter in, crushing the bunny they'd raised, the one they loved... Not if he could help it. Judy was too young, too naive and innocent and he'd sworn he'd protect her...

At that moment Bogo's office door flew back with a crash and Judy emerged, eyes spitting, fists balled. She looked remarkably like her mother whenever Stu forgot to do the laundry.

"What do you mean I'm not touching it? He's my goddamn fiancé!"

"Control yourself, Hopps!" bellowed the Chief, matching Judy's glare with his own, "Officer McHorn is perfectly capable and well vetted in these situations. You're too emotionally compromised for this! Need I remind you what happened last time you got too close to a case?"

In her position Stu would've certainly dissolved into a gibbering mess, but to his astonishment Judy held firm, turning on an apprehensive looking rhino in the far corner.

"McHorn! Are you Nick's partner?"

"No." the rhino answered cautiously. Stu had the impression of a mammal stepping out onto a mine field.

"Do you live with him?" a blanket of silence had enveloped the station. Even the rowdy drunks had fallen under the spell. Every mammal's eyes were fixed on the rabbit and the rhino, eyes flitting between them like they were watching a tennis match.

"... No" McHorn dwarfed Judy physically, but under her flinty gaze he suddenly seemed very small.

"Do you sleep with him?" Bonnie choked over her tea. As for the rhino, Stu didn't know their species could turn that colour.

"Aaarrrgh." It was all McHorn could manage.

"So do you therefore know him the best, out of everyone here?" Stu could've sworn he saw Judy give a massive stage wink.

"No." McHorn was grinning now, despite himself, "Sir, permission to share this case with DI Hopps."

Chief Bogo looked torn between exasperation and pride, but Stu sensed this was a mammal who knew how to keep his emotions in check. "Granted" he finally relented, and whirled back round into his office without another word. Judy launched herself at McHorn and caught him in a bone crushing hug.

"Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou..."

"That's my girl." Stu heard himself say. Huh. So much for innocent.

...

Judy tried to focus on the witness' report one more time, but the words spiraled up off of the paper and hovered vindictively, just out of reach. Two hours, and so far nothing. She was getting tired of sitting on her ass, but there was nowhere to go. Nick had been gone for over two hours, and despite McHorn and her's best efforts, every thread they pulled on came up empty. Every avenue they pursued was a blind alley. The investigation had stalled. She was literally clueless. God, she needed coffee.

Judy was just mixing herself a frothy double espesso, ruminating the worth of re-canvassing the crime scene, when a pointed cough scythed through her thoughts _._ Her mother was framed in the break room doorway. She looked like she was baring the weight of the world on her shoulders.

"I've had enough, Judy. This - this thing you have here, it goes against everything we ever taught you. Everything society ever taught you. It's uncouth and wrong and I don't think you've really thought about the consequences. People will hate you. You might be shunned for the rest of your life, you and your fox -"

And finally Judy couldn't take it any more; the storm that had broiled under the surface since the moment she'd been dragged out of bed that morning suddenly reached a fever pitch.

"I don't think you realise that I think about that every day! It took me eight months to admit I loved him because every time I got close, every time I tried, there you were. There 'society' was, telling me how sick I am." The memories came thick and fast now, flickering past like snapshots from an old movie projector.

 _There was Nick, wrapped in a towel and soaked to the skin, stepping out of the shower. Where had the gravity gone? Judy caught herself staring, tracking the path of a single droplet as it traced its way down his cheek and neck, pooling in the crevasse formed by his shoulder-blade. She wanted to copy it so badly it hurt. She swallowed, mouth dry. She shouldn't be feeling this way... There was a funny knot in her stomach as she opened her mouth to tell him the truth..._

"You raised me, mom. So of course every concern, every danger that you're thinking of ran through my mind too" Bonnie opened her mouth to reply, but Judy wasn't having it.

 _They were undercover together, huddled up in Nick's old beetle, the one with the rusted out floor. She could feel his steady heartbeat throbbing through his jacket... Was it her imagination, or was it beating unusually fast? Of course not; she shouldn't even be thinking about this... She opened her mouth to tell him the truth..._

The storm broke and hot, salty tears came welling up through the cracks. Judy didn't care any more. "It keeps me up ti the middle of the night, thinking about what might happen. I've had nightmares of being wrestled away, wailing helplessly as he's taken away by a mob of prejudiced beasts. Of opening the door at two in the morning to talk to the officer standing there, to tell him he's got it all wrong. I imagine collapsing on him, body wracked with heaving sobs."

 _They were twirling elegantly on the dance floor. Gazelle had invited them to a concert as a thank you for catching a blackmailer - they hadn't realised she wasn't performing. They'd arrived at a black tie event decked out in ratty hoodies and ripped jeans. They could barely control their laughter as they orbited each other, looping and touching for the briefest of seconds, the subject of a dozen scandalous glares. Judy glanced up and Nick held her gaze steadily, with those eyes that made her breath catch in her throat. His breath was warm, beating against her cheek. It had become hard to navigate the line between what they were and what they wanted to be - didn't he know how wrong this was? Judy opened her mouth to tell him the truth..._

"But he's worth it, mom. He can't drive, his sense of humour is off-the-charts shit, his cooking's so good he could've run a restaraunt in another life and he loves me way more than I deserve. Because I'm all he's got. If he died today there won't be anyone to sit down to console. No one to really share my grief because the only person who still loves him, really, deep down loves him is me. I can't just leave him mom, so don't even try to persuade me." The tears were coming thick and fast now. Nick could be dead for all she knew and here she was arguing with her mother over coffee.

 _Precisely what were had become hard to name._

 _He'd kissed her. Five seconds in heaven that felt like years. He'd kissed her right at the end of movie night, soft and sweet and scared, like he was fearful of rejection. From her. Dumb fox... Then her eyes had fluttered open and she'd screamed. Suddenly Nick wasn't there and all she could see were teeth. Rows of sharp, serrated teeth. A thousand years of evolution had come up between them like a wall. He was fighting to hold back tears. She was crying openly, hot rivulets of shame and self-loathing burning down her cheeks. He thought he scared her, but it would be alright if she just opened her mouth and told him the truth..._

Her mother looked like she'd been slapped in the mouth.

 _It had been like those golden summers they'd spent by the lake when she was a kit. Standing poised on the high board, too scared to jump but too stubborn to climb down._

 _He'd had a girlfriend. A vixen called Julie he'd been seeing for about a month. Judy had missed her chance and that knowledge sat heavy and poisonous in her heart. Maybe it was for the best. Maybe it really was unnatural... God, Nick I'm so sorry... If only she'd opened her mouth and told him the truth..._

Judy turned and walked away, back to her desk, making futile attempts to dry her eyes. There must be a lead they'd missed, somewhere.

 _It had eventually come out of course, that night after the sting. She hadn't even opened her mouth; the truth just sort of slipped out without thinking. Those three words. She'd clapped a paw over her mouth in horror. She'd said too much. They weren't enough... Then she'd been kissing him like every kiss could be her last (it could be,it could be...) before he'd had time to react, before he had time to reject her. Not that he ever would..._

And that was what killed her. She could have confessed eight months before that and he'd have loved her all the same. They'd suffered through eight months of heartbreak - she'd put him through eight months of pinning and rejection - for jack-shit. Because every time she'd opened her mouth to tell him the truth her parents had been there, towering over her, radiating disapproval, thier disappointment monolithic. She'd hated it and hated herself for being so weak, for not having faith. But now her self-righteous mother had thrown all that pain right back in her face. That was beyond belief.

...

Her father didn't help matters.

"You can't blame her, Judes. The way you were talkin' to that tiger (don't think we didn't see you cos I've learnt the hard way nothin' slips by your mother) and then sneakin' behind the chief's back just now. You've even started thinking like a fox..."

 _Stupid bunnies_ , Judy snarled inside. Then the realisation of what that thought meant ripped into her. _Stupid bunnies..._ Was she really that far removed from them? Was she that much in contempt that she'd stoop to the levels of the very same asshats that had discriminated against her through her entire life? Judy suddenly felt extremely sober. Then another thought shoved the guilt away.

 _Thinking like a fox..._

Then it came to her. A blinding, euphoric wave of realisation. She could see Nick perched on the corner of her desk, clutching one of those Star-Bucks coffees he'd convinced HR to pay for as 'species accommodation' ( _"Foxes are nocturnal! I need the caffeine!") He rolled his eyes_ sardonically.

 _"I thought you were meant to be the sly one?"_ he'd say.

Thinking like a fox!

It was tenuous. it was stupid. Even if it panned out it could be dangerous. It was exactly what they needed.

"McHorn, I've got a lead!"

 **A/N: OK, hope that was OK. Sorry about the longer wait, but I've had writer's block so what can you do? Updates may be coming slower now anyway, just because exam season is almost upon me. As always, please review and give any pointers or ideas!**


	4. Chapter 4

Page 19 / November 16th 1998

 **'MODERN** **DAY** **ROBIN** **HOOD'** **SHOT** **IN** **ATTEMPTED** **PRISON** **BREAK**

 _By Elphadore Trumpet_

At approximately 1:27pm yesterday afternoon, infamous conmammal/thief Robert 'Robin Hood' Wilde was pronounced dead as the result of two gunshot wounds to the back by the Shangri-Paw prison corner. Wilde had been transferred to Shangri-Paw after his long-time incarceration at Zootopia's own Outback Island prison had been met with extreme aggression from several inmates the fox had long, 'complicated' histories with. The Shangri-Paw prison board has yet to make an official statement, which leads this reporter to believe some desperate last-minute damage control is being attempted behind closed doors, but _The Crime Gerbil_ managed to snag a few minutes with an anonymous source present at the time of the escape attempt;

"I don't know what caused it, but the fox suddenly went crazy. Sprinted off towards the the fence without warning and started to climb." At this point several guards moved to intercept the fleeing convict. Exactly who fired the shots is still unknown, but eyewitness accounts confirm that they all had their weapons drawn. "Look, I'm not proud he's dead, but something had to be done. That fox had ruined too many lives, there was no way we were going to let him leave. And he had every opportunity to stop". Our source went on to debunk claims of police brutality as "ridiculous".

Whether these circling rumors are true or not may never be known, but this certainly marks a bloody end to Wilde's impressive career. Although only charged for three counts of theft and grand larceny, those who have been following his trial with us here at _The Gerbil_ will recall the dozens of other heists he has been linked to with all but solid evidence. Wilde earned the nickname 'Robin Hood' from his early days, when he rose to fame by robbing corrupt businessman Kyle Tusken of $30, 000, 000, distributing half that money among the victims of his fraudulent real estate company. However, this spurt of fame was short lived and Wilde soon faded into relative obscurity. Not only that, but recently it seems Wilde had lost his more noble streak too, as he was arrested at his home some 6 years ago after being implicated in a scam targeting the very same people he had helped with Tusken's money.

Shangri-Paw prison's resident medical examiner will neither confirm nor deny evidence of alcohol abuse, but after talking to several of Wilde's past acquaintances (who refused to go on record) I can see no other explanation for his irrational behaviour.I find myself saddened at the thought of this once great mammal, a criminal but great nonetheless, giving up on what he believed in. Wilde's wife and young son were unavailable for comment. No funeral plans have yet been announced.

 **...**

Nick didn't know how long he hung there, suspended by only his tail, eyes closed and arms dangling uselessly. All concepts of time and space had been slowly eroded away until it was just him, hanging in the viscous darkness. And the pain. The ferocious, firey pain that arced its way up his spine every time he so much as twitched. His tail was going to tear right off, he knew it. And they weren't even asking him questions, that was the worst thing. Finn had just left him to stew in this bubbling cauldron of agony.

Time passed. He slipped in and out of conciousness so many times he lost track of what was real and what was -

Memory.

 _Two weeks. It had been two weeks since Dad had died, and Nicholas thought there must be something wrong with him. He hadn't cried. Not once. He'd laid on his back, tracing the cracks in the ceiling, trying to solve them like a maze. He'd laid spread-eagled on his front, face buried deep in his ratty pillow, waiting for the heavens to open. But the tears had refused to come. It had been two weeks of no school, no friends, no nothing. And definitely no crying. Not from him, anyway. Maybe he wasn't crying because Mom was doing enough for both of them. Enough for several countries actually; Nicholas was mildly surprised no one had issued an official flood warning, the amount of water she was pumping out. He shook himself mentally; that was a cruel, foxy thing to think._

 _He rolled onto his side, contemplating exactly why Dad kicking the bucket hadn't triggered the customary waterworks. After several hours of this, he finally hit upon the idea that he just... didn't care anymore._ (Liar.) _It wasn't as if he wasn't sad Dad was dead, perse, but the sadness he felt was far off and detached. Like when you lose a distant relative you'd never really known. In a way Nicholas had never really known his father at all; he'd just got tangled up in the intricate web of lies Dad had been weaving since the day he was born. How could he have been so blindsided?_ (Because Dad is your hero.) _Taken in by those stupid kid's stories about foxes in green tights and the rights of a 'noble bloodline'. Honestly, the only reason the Hood had robbed the rich was because the poor didn't have anything worth stealing! Nicholas grunted and rolled onto his front again, his eyes boring into the cieling as if deciphering answers from the flaking paint_. (You know them already, just admit it.)

 _In the end it just seemed so pointless. Why fight to make yourself heard when no one was listening? At least Dad had managed to teach him that last lesson by getting chucked in the slammer; eventually even he had given up. Gee thanks Pops, you braved prison food to teach me a life lesson. Accidentally_. (You miss him already.) _And when it all came down to it even Dad's death had been lousy; no blaze of glory or holding his head up high. Just two slugs in the back. Couldn't have happened to nicer guy._

 _..._

 _ **Dear Mrs Wilde,**_

 _ **I regret to inform you that Nicholas has been linked to string of negative incidents this term, the escalation of which has led me to write this letter. Nicholas has always been quiet in classes, but recently he has begun debunking proven scientific theories as, and I quote, "sanctimonious bullshit". Seeing as Nicholas' biology teacher is himself a bull, you can see how this could cause offence.**_

 _ **Last week he was also removed from the school play due to uncouth behaviour. He had swapped out the lyrics for a central musical number, changing them from '**_ **It's a good world after all'** _ **to**_ **'It's a good world after all, unless you're a predator, in which case fuck you'.**

 _ **His most recent transgression was getting into a physical altercation with star pupil Billy Ramberton, after his science project on evolution predicted most 'small' predatory species will become outmoded and extinct within the next ten million years. Nicholas branded Billy a "Speciesist asshat", but I must assure you that the project was well verified.**_

 _ **When confronted about his actions by Ms. Bonny Vine, Nicholas claimed he had inherited the responsibilities of his family. When Ms. Vine asked Nicholas who exactly he thought he was, he replied "Robin-freaking-Hood".**_

 _ **These delusions of grandeur are most disturbing, and unless they are dealt with at home we will be forced to suspend your son**_ **.**

 _ **Regards, Mr Sheppardton**_

 _ **...**_

 _Funerals were depressing. Yeah, big surprise. But what really tipped Nicholas over the edge was how... Petty everything was. They'd had a fair turnout, all things considered_ (Dad deserves a hero's burial.), _but the crowd was composed of faceless strangers. There wasn't enough noise, either. Nicholas got that funerals were meant to be subdued, but Goddammit, anyone would think the guests were the dead ones, not the guy in the coffin._ (That's your Dad, asshole. show some respect.) _They all seemed too eager to please too, tripping over each other to say the exact same things over and over..._

 _"We're sorry for your loss... Terrible tragedy... A great soul lost too soon..."_

 _Even Mom looked bored._ (I'm not sure she's feeling too good.) _She'd finally wrung herself out, but she still didn't seem all there. Not healthy. She was weary and strained, like a well run dry in drought._

 _The murmur of the guests scratched at his ears, buzzing in its endless circles. Nicholas resisted the urge to swat at it like an irritating gnat. Instead he just did what he did best; melded into the shadows and watched the pointless scurryings of the visitors. He wasn't marking anyone, not really._ (Yes you are.) _More like he was honouring Dad's memory, in his own way._ (I think your ass is getting jealous of all this shit you're thinking up.) _After all, it was Dad who had taught him the tricks of the trade. Subtly at first, oh so subtly. A lift here, a mark there, because when Mom caught wind of what was going on her fury could topple mountains. After Dad had gone up the creek Nicholas had turned his back on those dangerous games. He wanted to be a scout._ (Thieving made you feel dishonest and unclean.) _Playing with fire could get you burnt, but after... the Incident, Nicholas had decided he'd rather get burnt on his own terms than have others sacrifice him to the flames._ (so basically suicide, dumbass).

 _Hang on. What was that wollfhound doing? There, the idiot in the opposite corner, sizing up Jackie from down the street like a piece of meat. Stupid mutt may as well have sent up a warning flare;_ Hi, I'm here to steal everything that's precious to you, please remember to call the cops! _Way too overeager and - Nicholas supposed - too vulnerable. Surely it was his civic duty to straighten the kid out. Stop another poor schmuck falling victim to an officer's itchy trigger finger._ (You're your own worst enemy, you know that?) _. Nicholas sidled over._

 _"You're doing it wrong." he whispered. The wolfhound, Nicholas had decided to call him Fido, political correctness be damned, jerked like he'd just been electrocuted. Honestly, Nicholas was surprised he hadn't launched himself through the roof. Fido was small, but he didn't have an ounce of fat on his body, and all that muscle was coiled up like a spring wound too tight. "You need to be more subtle." Nicholas continued softly, "Move around a little, act natural. And don't be a fussy eater; there are dozens of potential marks here, so don't focus everything on just one."_

 _"You think you're a better con than me just 'cause you're a fox?" Fido growled. Nicholas bristled at the accusation_ (Don't sink to his level.) _and part of him wanted to tell this fleabag to go chase a chew-toy,_ (Yep, that'll about do it.) _but upon deliberation he decided to let it slide. It wasn't like he was doing anything to prove him wrong, and hey; if you can't beat 'em, join 'em._ (... I seriously just give up at this point.)

 _"No. I think I'm better than you just 'cause I am. Now close your mouth and watch before you do anything else stupid. Like talk." Fido obviously didn't think much of this idea; Nicholas watched a vein throb angrily in his neck with a sense of almost parental pride; it felt so good to siphon off all his frustration into this new outlet. For an insane moment he wanted Fido to swing at him; at least a fight would end this infuriating quiet. But alas, it seemed it wasn't to be. The tension slowly ebbed from his knotted shoulders, and for a time the two of them stood there in silence, eyes skimming the crowd as they would a menu at a fancy restaraunt; pretty soon they were ruminating about the guests like commentators at a sports game._

 _There was a sultry looking vixen, dragging her heels reluctantly into middle age, hovering over the meager drinks table, her cheeks already flushed from her fourth glass of in the crowd called her Mrs Vulpezuela and Fido, overeager as ever, swooped down like a vulture on a fresh carcass._

 _"No wedding ring. Bet she's a widow."_

 _"Oh come on, you can see the ring indent on her finger! She's just here to get drunk and nab some on-the-side action while her old man's away."_

 _"At a funeral?"_

 _"Best of luck to her. This place could use some livening up."_

 _"Whatever. I wouldn't say no to a piece of that, anyway."_

 _Fido sniffed non-commitally, like getting lucky with such a fine specimen of prepubecent street rat as himself was more than Mrs Vulpezuela could ever hope for. He was aggravating to say the least, but as they stood vigil together Nicholas couldn't help but think that this was the closest he'd felt to someone since... Well, since before the Incident. He was tempted to say something, and the words were on the tip of his tongue when something disturbing caught his eye._

 _"Mom's got an admirer." he grunted._

 _"What?"_

 _"Polecat in the corner. Been eyeing her up for about ten minutes."_

 _"Oh. Nah, that's Keith. He's got a thing with the girl in the grocers down Howlton and 9th. Visits her every week."_

 _"I know. He's also got a weakness for a girl by the name of Kitty, lives about five blocks from here."_

 _"A polecat called Kitty?" Fido snorted._

 _"You're missing the point." Nicholas snapped impatiently, "Which is that he's already juggling at least three girls, when you factor in his Missus. So he still could be-"_

 _"Nah, your mom's fine. See the way he keeps staring at the dresser? I think he wants to get his hands on her fine china more than her duds."_

 _Normally Nicholas would've punched anyone's lights out at the mention of Mom's 'duds', but right now he was too busy feeling relived. Of course Kieth was after the china; how could he not have seen that? It was like Dad had always said; emotions were worse than quicksand. They could suck you in without you even noticing, not until you were three feet deep and struggling to breathe._ (Or they could be your lifeline.) _They clouded your judgement, so it was best to steer clear._ (This is your Mom, asshat.)

 _"I'd pay to see the cat fight that goes down when Keith's little love triangle collapses." chuckled Fido. Nick blinked stupidly at the back of his head. Maybe he wasn't a total lost cause after all..._

 _The guests were still droning on to Mom about sympathy and other hollow sentiments that really meant nothing at all. Nicholas about to switch off again when a rich, melodic voice cut through the air._

 _"I'd like to say I'm sorry he's gone, Mrs Wilde, but I don't like lying for no reason. Especially to the widows of old colleagues, even if they were scumbags."_

 _Nicholas' head turned so fast he almost got whiplash. Standing in the middle of their dingy lounge was a lion, proud and majestic and apparently completely unperturbed by the full force of Mom's world-famous murderous glare. Nicholas had blabbed like a baby under the threat of that look more times than he'd like to admit, but this guy, this lion - like a real, actual lion with a mane and everything - seemed unaware he'd just signed his own death warrant. Seriously though, a lion? Lions belonged with the creme de la creme of high society, where animals bought billion dollar cars they'd never actually drive - don't be ridiculous - and took baths made of caviar instead of water. What the hell was he doing in a dump like this?_

 _It didn't matter, anyway; Mom had the wrath of God behind her as she ordered the lion to "Get the hell out of my house now, before I shave that mane off your head and feed it to you through your ass!" She could be a real force of nature when she got worked up, and Nicholas was tempted to hide the fine china in case she started chucking it around the room. The lion just chuckled dourly and bade her good day._

 _He turned his gaze on Nicholas instead. For a second their eyes locked, clear sparkling green and a twinkling, almost appraising yellow. He beckoned, and for the briefest second Nicholas had the strongest urge to leave with him. Those eyes were drawing him in like a needle to a magnet. But then Fido beat him to it._

 _"See you around, fox."_

 _Nicholas made an intelligent noise, something caught between a grunt and a moan._

 _"Wait. Where are you going?"_

 _"That's my boss." This was the first time he had seen Fido's face and - well, that was unexpected. Fido's body language had boasted loudly of a hard-edge, no-shit pred with more street cred than he knew what to do with. Fido's eyes told Nicholas that his body had lied._

 _"You have a boss? But you're like six!" he said. Fido snorted._

 _"Shut up. Here," he fished around in his pant pocket for a second, then produced a dog eared business card, "if you ever get bored of leaving it at just marking mammals, if you want to make a difference for predators, give us a call. We could use someone like you." Nicholas took the card without comment, resolving to throw it in the trash ASAP, "You're not as dumb as you look, Foxy."_

 _"Yeah, you too. Though, I s'pose if you were you wouldn't be able to walk and talk at the same time. Name's Nicholas by the way."_

 _"Finn. See you around, Nicky-boy."_

 _Next second they were gone, Finn trotting along behind the lion like a good little boy on his leash, leaving nothing but the whisper of a smirk and twinge of something that wanted very much to be belonging in their wake._

 _..._

They were going to talk to Simian Six, and that meant braving the lion's den. Metaphorically. No lion would ever be caught dead in the Nox, and Judy had a sneaking suspicion that her parents wouldn't be very receptive to the Nocturnal District's... charms, either. She and Nick had avoided the place like the plague for months. After what happened last time - well, this place was pretty much the fifth level of Hell for them. Still, Judy had promised herself a long time ago that she'd walk through Hell and back for Nick. He'd thrown it all to the wind to be with her, and now it was time to return the favour.

The Nox was a hollowed out dome deep underground. Open water pipes dotted the slimy walls like yawning mouths, dribbling acrid water onto the buildings below. One had been modified into a transport tunnel, a single lifeline between it and the rest of Zootopia, but the engineers had helpfully forgotten to stem the flow of water so it sheeted down over the entrance like a waterfall. Judy's cruiser burst through, the water parting like curtains on a stage. For a moment the entire district was laid out below them like a map, and Judy felt the view snatch her breath away. Hard to believe it'd gotten worse. Much worse than last time she'd been down here.

Spindly simulation trees bedecked in creeping vines snaked down from a roof too high up to see, like the ancient roots of the city proper above. Clumped around their bases were apartment buildings, block after block crammed on top of one another as if caught in a mad scramble upward and away, trying to escape the terrors of the dark. An old monorail ringed the entire thing like barbed wire on a prison wall.

Judy took the plunge, diving headfirst into the maze of back alleys and side-streets, swerving madly around hairpin turns and barreling down crooked shortcuts. She tried to block out the scenes flashing past the windows, but they wound their way through like worms into a rotting apple, engraving themselves in her memory like a chisel on stone. Mammal debris littered the sidewalk, animals wrapped in sleeping bags drifting along the pavement like plastic bags on the wind. A field of rubble three mammals deep lay sleeping by the overcrowded Savannah Mission.

Long ago in the days of yore, when TV was black and white and people hunted dinosaurs with sticks, the Nox had been associated with words like 'trendy' and 'fashionable'. Then hard times had hit like a breaking wave, flooding the streets with crime and general balls-out anarky. Residents had moved out. Businesses had shut up shop. Now the Nox was just the dark cupboard where Zootopia hung its skeletons.

It soon became clear Nick wasn't the only one who found Judy's driving style... unorthodox, as attested to by the bevy of screams issuing from the backseat. She paid her parents no heed. It was their own fault they were here, and if it were up to Judy they wouldn't be; it was only after Stu had threatened to follow her on foot she had finally relented. They didn't seem to understand that a night time stroll in the Nox could have you wake up the next morning at the bottom of the river, wearing a lovely new pair of lead shoes.

 _Dumb bunnies_. There it was again; the thought had risen into a frantic caterwall blaring in her ears. Her entire life Judy had poured herself into being all or nothing; she had deviated so far from what constituted normal... Had she pushed it too far? The idea that she'd unknowingly let such a core part of her identity slip through her fingers was harrowing.

 _She started playing the game again. The same one she'd been playing since she was four years old, after Gideon had attacked and there had been the white hot pain and the scars that had faded, but the other scars too, the ones that were still open and raw. The ones that had woken her in the Witching Hours of the night, bleeding all over the sheets and screaming for someone to save her. Daddy and Mommy would come, sit down beside her on the bed and hold her until the storm had passed. Then daddy would plant her on his knee and Mommy would dry her eyes with delicate strokes. But they wouldn't tell her she was safe. Because her fear was fickle but the truth was not. Instead they'd teach her a game; a simple, petty, stupid little game that was the most important thing in the world. There were no What Ifs or Maybes. There were Facts and there were Fairytales, and it was time she learnt the difference._

 _Fact: She was OK. Right there, right then. Snuggled in her mother's arms with a toasty mug of cocoa and a chocolate moustache._

 _Fairytale: Gideon wasn't hunting her. There was no monster coming over the hill, no demon lurking under her bed. They were just nightmares._

A fresh batch of wailing from behind warned her of impending doom, and Judy saw the lights change just in time to slam on the brakes. She could only imagine what Nick would have to say.

 _One time he'd shown her how 'real men' drive. Within ten minutes he'd tried to wrap her car round three different streetlights and a tree..._

No. Eyes on he road, Hopps. Don't give them a real reason to scream...

Fact: Nick was still missing.

Fairytale: She had time to put her family problems before him right now.

They screeched to a halt partway down a dingy side street and Stu stumbled out, looking alarmingly green.

"So," said Bonnie over the delightful sound of her husband's retching. She glanced around apprehensively; this looked like the kind of place bums and junkies came to die. "Is there any particular reason we stopped here or..." she trailed off in befuddlement as Judy rapped sharply on what appeared to be an ordinary brick wall. The wall - not a wall at all, but actually a concealed door, Bonnie realised - slid back smoothly. An impossibly large ape, done up in a full monkey suit, loomed threateningly in the doorway, chewing a toothpick the approximate size and shape of a rabbit's thigh bone.

"Hi Mike!" Judy grinned winningly. The ape was not impressed.

"Unless you've got a warrant, shove off." he snapped tersely.

"I just need to talk to the regulars, I'm not going to touch any licenses or -" she coughed - "lack thereof." Mike's expression hadn't changed one iota. Judy leaned forward conspiratorially, "You notice how there hasn't been a raid on an interspecies bar in nine months?" She ignored the strangled mewling noise her mother made at the word 'interspecies'. This style of policing was more Nick's forte, but after watching a self proclaimed 'master' at work for so long she hoped...

Mike seemed to mull this over for a moment, then relented, ushering them through to the dingy corridor beyond. Bonnie heard the door slide shut with an ominous boom. "Now, don't freak out or anything," said Judy earnestly, "this place is a bit of an... acquired taste." Not for the first time, Bonnie noted how worn down her daughter looked: Her face radiated barely veiled hysteria, "just stay in the corner while I talk with who I'm here to see," she finished.

They entered a large, open space full of smoke and flashing lights. Bonnie had heard horror stories about interspecies bars back in the Burrows, but this place seemed scrupulously clean. The furniture was impressively varied, ranging from couches that looked big enough to swallow her whole to love seats the approximate size and shape of egg cups; there were even a row of moisturisers jutting out of the nearest wall for amphibian guests. It was one of those places that tried to cater for everyone, but it only succeeded in making Bonnie feel uncomfortable. A couple of scantily clad dancers twirled slowly on poles in the far corner. Was it her imagination, or was there a flash of recognition when their eyes alighted upon Judy? Surely not. If she was being realistic, Bonnie supposedthe only _real_ problem with this place was the music; it was deafening her sensitive ears and the whole building seemed to bounce to its rythm. She was about to complain to Stu when the smoke dissipated slightly, unveiling the bar's patrons, and shock wrapped its clammy fingers round her throat, choking her into silence.

It was like that time she'd taken Mason and Georgia to the winter market; a city of tents that had stretched for miles in either direction. Animals of every size and creed had thronged the narrow alleys between the stalls. There were so many and they were so... _different_. The nightclub wasn't as full as the market, but that same boundless variety lingered; Bonnie couldn't even name half of the species in front of her. A sideways glance confirmed Stu was just as thunderstruck as she felt. Not Judy, though. Her daughter threaded her way through the jumble of tables, casually dispensing hellos to mammals a good twenty times her size. Bonnie felt something that just might have been pride kindle in her gut. Then the barman spoke and the pride (had it really been pride at all?) was swiftly extinguished.

"Well, if it isn't our own Angel!" guffawed the bulldog, "We've been mnissin' you these past few months. You here to dance, or will it just be the usual?" Judy's ears stood ramrod straight. _Her usual_ , echoed Bonnie. Good God, she was a regular here. In this hive of... of... _sin_.

"Hi Tom!" Judy chirped, forced calm rolling off her like heat from a furnace. "Any idea where I might find Six?"

"AAAAAHHHHH!" A ball of black and orange fur came sailing over the heads of the crowd, scooting along the floor twice before coming to rest in a neat little heap at Judy's feet. "Ta dah!" it said in a slightly dazed voice, "say my name and I magically appear."

"Really, Six? Again?" Judy sighed like she saw furry little imps rain from the sky every day, helping him to his feet, "Who'd you piss off this time?"

"Wha- Unbelieveable!" the furball clutched his chest in mock indignation, bright eyes clouded with fake tears,"you just automatically assume the worst, don't you?" There was a general susseration and the crowd parted like a shoal of fish. A rhino roughly the size of a mountain stepped through the gap, cracking his knuckles threateningly. "It's him." said the furball, "And I don't think 'pissed off' really covers it."

Judy stepped forward, typically unfazed by this behemoth. Bonnie knew how this would end; she could see every step coming, one after the other. This rhino would gently scoop her daughter up, her little girl. And he'd snap her like a dried twig. The timid little prey animal in Bonnie's head was screeching at her to turn tail and flee. But not now. She'd be damned before she abandoned Judy to this city again.

"Hi. Listen, I'm really sorry for anything Six might've said-slash-done-slash-stolen, but I'm going to have to ask you to step away now, before anyone gets hurt." Judy's voice was bright and peppy, like she and the rhino were discussing this over sundaes in the park, and he wasn't about to squash her into grease spot.

The mountain looked slightly bemused, obviously wondering why the little bunny hadn't yet melted into a puddle of goo. Several cronies had spread out in his wake; all were making evil eyes at the imp. Their alpha spoke slowly, as if using words wasn't something he was entirely used to.

"No can do, cutie. This asshole has an appointment with the end of my horn."

"Raincheck?" the furball suggested weakly.

Judy's smile twitched involuntarily at 'cutie', but she held it together; diplomacy first. By now most officers would have the rhino in cuffs, but she really didn't want to cause a scene. The poor thing wasn't even sober.

"Oh, he's definitely an asshole." she agreed wholeheartedly, "But unfortunately I'm a police officer, which means that I can't actually let anyone - y'know die. The paperwork would be unbarable."

At this point the furball seemed to think it was a good idea for him to chip in again - it really wasn't.

"Oh come on, Hopp-along. He's not gonna listen to you! He's too distracted by the earthquakes he causes every time he moves!"

It was puny and pathetic and it pushed the rhino right over the edge; he lunged forward with unbelieveable speed. But his flailing arms swung wide as Six sprang up and clear, tail latching on to the lighting frame above. He swung there for a moment like bait on a hook, goading the animals to take a bite. The poor rhino squinted up at him, a growl rumbling in his throat. If he hadn't been so distracted, he would've noticed Judy. If he'd noticed Judy, he would've run away.

Because she had the Look on her face. That _I-can-do-anything-so-just you try and stop-me_ look. Stu still had nightmares about the Look. Bonnie wanted to shout for the rhino to take cover.

Too late.

Suddenly Judy wasn't on the floor, she was on the rhino's back. Bonnie heard the sharp buzz of a taser and electricity arced down the rhino's spine. He swung his arm round as if to swat a fly, but you cannot hit what isn't there, and Judy had materialised on the floor again.

By now the cronies were closing in to protect their alpha. Judy darted through their legs like a hornet, dart gun in paw, stinging again and again until they all fell like dominoes. Now she was up the wall, using the moisturisers to heave herself up. She pushed off and pirouetted elegantly; Bonnie was reminded of those ballet lessons she had been so terrible at as a kit, and bored down on the rhino like a missile.

Bonnie heard the snap of a kick; the rhino made a noise and swung back like a sand bag. Judy was down, she was going for the head again. but he was ready now and her luck had run out and this was how it would end...

His fist fell on empty air, and suddenly there was an angry grey blur racing up the rhino's arm. Then the blur collided with his face, hard. Once. Twice. Three times. He crumbled like the statue of some ancient king. Judy got up and brushed off her hands.

Bonnie was vaguely aware that the furball, dropping to the floor with a showy little flip, was complaining about something or other.

"Show off... Could've just put him out of his misery with a dart..."

Judy's reply echoed as if coming from the end of a long tunnel.

"His skin's too thick... besides, I needed the excercise..."

Bonnie looked around, studying the audience. The expressions on their faces ranged from shock to awe to mild curiosity as to what was on the specials menu tonight. She felt Judy grasp her paw and pull her away, Stu and the furball in tow. They passed the barman, who was muttering dark things about kung fu bunnies under his breath. Bonnie blinked and they were in the car. Judy's police cruiser, where the light scent of fox and doughnuts danced around her nose. Everything was too slow, like they were moving through treacle.

It took time for the dust to settle. Only after would she try to work the enormity of what had happened into words.

"What the fluff just happened?"

...

Absolute silence clung to the cruiser like stink to a skunk. Six had taken the news about Nick virtually without comment, merely grunting out a few directions to an unkown destination. He sat hunched over on the passenger's side, staring moodily at his own reflection as if it was an old ghost that just wouldn't stay buried. In the two and a half years they'd known each other, he and Nick had never been particularly close, so Judy wasn't quite sure what had got him so riled up. His bad mood was infectious; she could almost feel a little thundercloud growing over her head.

Outside, vistas of boarded up clubs and dilapidated warehouses flashed by. The tension was palpable. Someone was bound to crack-

"It wasn't my fault." said Six.

It's always your fault, Six." All of a sudden Judy felt more tired than she ever had in her life. "I do nothing but defend you, and I always end up knee deep in shit because of it."

"I was just trying to do what you keep telling me to do. Y'know, look out for others. 'Show that I really care'." His tone was scathing, but that was nothing new. Always so angry at the world...

"How is picking a fight with four mammals at once 'showing you really care'?"

"They weren't regulars, Hopps. They were drunk and probably only came in as a dare."

"So?" Judy wanted so badly to just curl up and sleep. Maybe she'd wake up in Nick's warm embrace and today would only be a nightmare, like the ones she'd had of Gideon when she was a kit.

"So, they got the wrong idea. Started trying to muscle in on a couple of the smaller dancers. including Crystal." That woke Judy up. The memory of Crystal, a dewy eyed Siamese with her head in the clouds, was branded onto her mind from the last time she'd been down here. Crystal was sweet and kind and the first of the working girls not to treat Judy like some invading alien. "It's mammals like that who get the wrong idea." Six blurted. He'd never been one to hide from the truth of things. "They think interspeciesism is just some kinky thrill and try to take advantage of some species'... disadvantages. So yeah, that's how I was 'showing others that I really care'. "

Judy heard her mother shift uneasily on the back seat. Warmth seeped through her bones. Sometimes it felt so good to be wrong.

"Sorry."

"Nah, it's fine. I managed to get a few good hits in. Imagined it was McHorn I was punching in the face." Six tactfully ignored Judy's glare. He and McHorn had been playing cat and mouse for years, and old grudges died hard. "And incidentally, i forgive you too."

"For what?" Judy asked, bemused.

"That asshole comment. It was a little snarky for you, but I s'pose you're trying to compensate. Left up here."

"I was wondering 'bout that too," Stu suddenly piped up. "Why the sudden attitude shift, hun?"

"Wilde's gone, and he's like her other half." Six supplied, "He completes her. So now he's been taken away she's trying to fill this sardonic, fox-shaped hole in her soul by _trying_ \- big emphasis on trying - to be funny in his place. Or some mushy shit like that."

It was moments like this that gave Judy hope for him. Beneath his general irritableness, distaste for people and the many, _many_ layers of grit and grime, there was a mammal who genuinely _got_ people.

Of course, this went straight over her father's head.

"Look son, if you don't mind my asking, who are you?"

"Simian Six. I can't believe Hopps hasn't mentioned my awesomeness to you yet."

"And... _What_ are you? If you don't mind me asking, only-I've-never-heard-of-a-small-primate-with-fur-like-yours-and..." Stu was babbling; he knew he'd crossed a line. In fact, it was so far behind him you couldn't even see it from here.

Six respectfully waited for him to shrink into silence, the same way you wait for someone to finish a eulogy at a funeral.

"I'm a lemur, if you must know. I grew up in a circus. I was helluva highwire act, no net or anything. But the ringleader was really a disturbed psychopath who kept us on leashes when we weren't performing. He dyed patches of our fur orange so he could hunt us down and kill us if we ever escaped and tried to tell the world the terrible truth."

Fact: Stu's face right now was comedy gold.

Fairytale: Pretty much everything Six had just said.

Over the years he had spun so many sob stories and tragic origins for himself Judy had lost count. They seemed to get more morbid every time; by now their combined death toll had to be in the hundreds of thousands. _An experimental chemical weapon was used on my village when I was a kit and these are the scars; I was the only one to make it out alive, so thanks for that lovely trip down memory lane._ Or, _Oh, I'm a serial arsonist, didn't you know? I dye a new patch of fur orange for every building I burn down. They represent the fires of Hell I'm gonna roast in when I die._ The problem was you never knew if there was a grain of truth hidden amongst the lies...

"Stop!" Six barked. The cruiser complained loudly as Judy slammed on the brakes, sliding to a halt in the shadow of one of the ramshackle tower blocks. "We're here." he announced, shoving the door open and scrabbling out, "Answers as to the location of dear old Officer Wilde are this way."

...

 _ **Mrs Wilde,**_

 _ **We regret to inform you Nicholas has been suspended from school for the next week. This is the culmination of three weeks of constant disruptive, often offensive behaviour.**_

 _ **The tipping point was this Monday; somehow your son got his paws on every Teacher's Edition in the school and grafitied them with 'facts' like "Did you know that predators are five times more likely to be stop-and-searched than prey?" And "Schools with all-prey teaching staff (like this shithole) report 30% more predator-related behaviour incidents than mixed schools."**_

 _ **When confronted about this crime, Nicholas protested he was merely trying to raise awareness about pred-prey inequalities. We don't believe him; his appalling grades in last term's finals attest that he's not smart enough for this to be a ligitimate excuse, and we have come to the conclusion he is stirring up trouble for the sake of it.**_

 _ **On the issue of predator representation among our staff, while it is true that we (like many other schools) have so far been unable to fill the newly mandated 10% of our positions with predator teachers, I assure you that this is through no fault of our own. Just last week we had to let our first pred teaching assistant go because parents like yourself were complaining about "threatening behaviour".**_

 _ **I understand you are feeling a little under the weather just now, but I hope you realise the severity of Nicholas' crimes.**_

 _ **Mrs Sheppardton**_

 _..._

 _Being suspended felt like failure. Which was weird, because the fact they were punishing him meant he was getting somewhere, right?_ (Right. You, my friend, are a lost cause.) _Who was he kidding? They didn't give a flying shit about his little rebellion, and Mom would give him ten kinds of Hell when she found out._ (If she gets better.) _Nicky felt Ineffectual and out of his depth, like he was trying to fight a war with an actual bow and arrow. And then, just to rub his face in the dirt, they'd fired Mr. Grizzowski. The guy had sneezed the wrong way, it'd come out as a growl, someone had cried wolf - literally - and next thing you know he'd been kicked out so fast he'd be feeling the boot ptrint on his ass for months. The injustice of it all made Nicky's insides boil._

 _Not for the first time, his eyes were drawn to the bin in the corner. It was overflowing with scrunched up bits of paper and old candy wrappers, but he hadn't emptied it in weeks. Not since the funeral. Buried somewhere in that bin was Finn's card; his golden ticket to salvation_ (Or a one-way ticket to Hell).

 _Nicky scooted over and dug through the trash like a prospector looking for gold. There it was. The address was still legible. Dare he taste the forbidden fruit?_

 _Mom moaned pitifully in the next room, pinning Nicholas' ears to his head. The pain was driving into her skull like an iron spike, and there was nothing he could do._ (You're losing her.) _The migraines came and went as they pleased; the doctor told him it was a physical manifestation of her grief._ (She's losing you.) _Some days she was fine, and it was almost like old times. Not that 'old times' had been all sunshine and roses. Other days she could get pretty bad, and pick him apart like lego. They'd argue for hours. About hs grades, his lack of real freinds, his rebellion at school_ (You realise all of this is breaking her, right? Your pathetic rebellion is chipping away at her more than anything.) _Then there were days like today. Days where her world was the dark and the bedclothes and the pain. Nicholas wanted to hold on to her, but she was trickling through his paws like sand, and the meagre medicines they could afford were almost as useless as him._ (Got that right.)

 _He heaved himself off the floor and went to her door, knocking softly._

 _"Mom? You OK?" Something expensive smashed on the other side. Probably another were going well already._

 _Nicholas slipped through quietly, taking it all in. The place looked was a bomb site, with bricabrac scattered across the carpet like shrapnel. The double bed loomed against the far wall, a crouching hunter waiting to pounce. His mother was curled up tightly in the centre of the duvet, breath whistling through clenched teeth. She looked so small. So lost. Nicholas picked his way over and perched himself on the edge._

 _"Leave," she choked out. He stayed rooted to the spot._

 _"Have you taken your pills, Mom?"_

 _She rocked back and forth slightly, whimpering like a newborn pup._ (Be strong for her. Be strong for her, now.) _"If you don't take your pills, it'll only get worse."_

 _She turned and stared right through him. Her eyes were like tunnels._

 _"If I take them now I won't be able to fight." she muttered, as if to herself. There was a hot lump in his throat that made it difficult to breathe._

 _"Mom, please-"_

 _"NO!" she wailed, throwing herself on him. Her grip was tight but she was too light; a ragdoll with fur. When was the last time she'd eaten? Nicholas prised her off, each finger a knife to the heart, and for the first time she looked him in the eyes. Recognition bloomed across her face like the first rays of dawn. "Richard?"_

 _All hope dissipated like a summer rainbow. Richard. She thought he was Dad._

 _"No." Nicky mumbled, almost pushing her off him. He backed away quickly, and something cracked under his paw. An old photo; the three of them, Mom, Dad and him, when he was just a kit. Dad had his arms wrapped protectively around them, grinning at the camera. The photo was faded, but Mom's eyes still sparkled._

 _"Richard, it's you! I had the most terrible nightmare; you were dead and Nicholas - Nicholas was as good as dying -"_

 _Nicky stared at her like she was talking another language._

 _"Take your pills." he rasped, turning to leave. They'd looked so happy in the photo. He couldn't remember them ever being that happy._

 _"Richard, please. I'm lost without you. Don't - don't leave me again..."_

 _He tripped over himself in his haste to get away from the photo, with its broken smiles. Away from the thing that used to be his mother. His jacket was off the hook and the door had slammed before she could hurt him again._

 _The card was clutched tightly in his paw. Fuck bows and arrows. It was time to go to war._

(Coward.)

...

New torture: Drowning.

A vat of icy water rose up to meet him. Nick bucked and shook for all he was worth, but goddamn Benny had a grip like a vice. The cold burned like fire, raking its icy claws across his muzzle and tearing his breath away.

His head was jerked back and the air stung his frozen lips. Nick needed to breathe, but God, he was so cold and everything was refusing to work.

Down into the depths again. The cold was everywhere now; trickling down his chest and into the pit of his stomach, where it formed jagged icebergs that jabbed and tore at his insides.

Benny jerked him back again. Nick's lungs had seized up like a frozen engine. He wanted to open his mouth, but if he did the water would get in again and he was sure, absolutely sure that this time it would freeze him solid.

Benny pushed down and Nick was powerless to resist. It was being patient now, the cold, content to sit back and watch the life drain out of him. Bubble by bubble. Second by second. Nick realised he'd stopped struggling. A detached sense of relief washed over him. Maybe this wasn't such a bad way to go, after all. The water didn't feel as cold any more. In fact, he couldn't feel much of anything now, except maybe an oddly relaxing numbness creeping up his spine.

Nick wondered what Judy would think-

 _Judy._

The cold came crashing back down on him and Nick roared in defiance, bubbles exploding out of his maw. Screw this. Dying was for wimps.

He broke the surface again; this time he managed to gasp a breath and held on to it for all he was worth, bracing himself for the next wave. It didn't come. Nick wondered briefly if, even after all that effort, he'd still managed to kick the bucket. He didn't think so. For one thing, he was pretty sure being dead wasn't this damn cold.

He risked opening an eye. Finn was there, looming over him like the Reaper himself. Well, shit.

"The way I see it." Finn said, "There are only two reasons that you'd still be holding out on us. One, the most likely to me, is that you think you're safe because your new Filth friends are coming to rescue you. That's cute."

Nick smiled nonchalantly, trying not to let on that his head felt like it had been through a blender.

"I try." There was a hurried knock on the door; Benny shuffled over and opened it a crack. There was the sound of muffled arguing and something else - was that a fox whimpering? "Hey, if you're busy, Finn, I could always come back another time."

Finn scowled.

"That's plan B." he snapped, "A last resort for if this doesn't pan out. If you don't see how stupid trusting cops is. Because it seriously is a whole other level of stupid. Like, beneath even Benny's level stupid." The returned Benny grunted noncommitally, as if he wouldn't put money on Nick being quite that bad. Finn sneered, "Unless of course you've already told them your little secret?"

"Yeah... Yeah." Nick grimaced, "I'm sorry man, but it's too late. The cops already know all about... Benny and your mom."

Benny actually stopped breathing. Even in his stunned state Nick knew he'd just let loose the literal dogs of war. _Not his mom, you stupid asshat-_

Finn was on him in an instant, fangs delicately brushing his left ear. When he spoke his vioce was silky, almost loving. It made Nick want to crawl out of his own skin.

"Now, you might've heard how in their last moments people show you who they really are. In that final moment of reckoning their true personality shines through. I'm here to tell you that's bullshit. In my experience there is no 'true self' because once all the layers have been peeled back everyone's the same." Finn's jaws drifted up and down Nick's ear, up and down, up and down, like a cat playing with a little mouse, "Death isn't something romantic or enlightning, Nicky. It happens. The end. So know it doesn't matter how long you hold out from us. You won't be 'proving your mettle' or some shit like that, because I already know what I'm going to see when you die. A savage beast backed into a corner."

"Is that supposed to scare me?" Damn right it scared him. Ever since the Nighthowlers... How did Finn do this? How could he have seen the _What If_ that had been hanging over Nick's head since that night at the museum?

"Oh no, Officer Wilde, of course not, _sir_. Because you're above all that, aren't you? You ZPD types, you hold yourselves to higher standard. Protect and serve and all that shit. Gimme a break, Nicky; you've got enough skeletons in your closet to fill a graveyard. Some of them already have. You thought becoming a cop would magically clear them out?"

Finn bit down on Nick's ear.

He screamed. Pain literally blinded him for a second; everything was just agony and fire and points of light...

Something hot and sticky rolled its lazy way down his cheek.

A question rolled around Nick's head. _Why?_ He gasped and hissed and tried to blot out the pain so he could tell them the truth. Because they needed to know. _He_ needed to know. The question had been there every minute of every day since Judy had first pinned on the badge. Every time he got shot at, every time he snapped on the cuffs, every time he wrote a goddamn parking ticket.

 _Why?_

"It's not-" Nick sucked air in and out. _Come on._ "It's not about making up for my mistakes. It's ab-bout making sure no one else repeats them."

He braced himself for the laughter. The jeers. Instead Finn slumped where he stood as if deboned. When he spoke again, his voice was not his own. It was thin, and frayed around the edges. The voice of an old miser, laden with regret.

"You know I think you were right, Nicky. About me getting out of the game. I've been swimming with sharks all my life, and you can only stay afloat so long. Problem is I've got no idea what I'd do with myself." he chuckled sourly, "Guess it's true what they say about old dogs and new tricks. Do you ever wonder...?"

For a split second Nick saw him; the young wolfhound at the funeral. Green as grass and bursting with ego and energy and _life_ \- his whole _life_ was ahead of him. Was that really the same creature that stood before him now, so angry and grey?

Then the image flickered and died. Finn shook himself and the scars leapt out from his muzzle again. "Option number two." he said, almost reminding himself. "The only other reason you'd be holding out is because you lack the proper motivation. Which means we've been wasting our time torturing you for the last six hours. You're making us look like idiots, Nicky-boy."

"You guys do that without my help."

Finn gave a lecherous grin.

"Oh you'd be surprised at how big we're getting Nicky. Our benifactor's a hardline bastard, but not un-generous."

"Yeah," Nick agreed, watching a long strand of swamp slime ooze its way down a wall, "I can see that from your classy supervillain lair. Tell me, has the city health inspector been round here yet?"

Finn seemed not to hear, marching over to the door, gripping it the way one would the pin on a grenade.

"Last chance. Tell us what you know or else."

"Go to the crows." Nick spat.

"Fine. Can't say I didn't warn you. Boys, bring her in!"

Blind panic flooded his system. _Her. Oh shit, Judy. They've got Judy-_

The two llamas from the car entered the room, holding another mammal between them.

Nick's brain went into shut down mode. _Dr Wilde isn't here right now, but if you'd like to make an appointment..._

It wasn't Judy. She was a fox. It had been over twenty years and Nick had changed so much, but she had barely aged a day. She still held herself with the exact same, almost regal confidence. The only sign of the intervening years were the crows feet at the corners of her eyes.

The words found him at last.

"... Mom?"

 **A/N: Hello again. I've been working on this little by little for over a month, but revision and exam practice has been crazy, so shoot me. I hope it was decent, and if anyone could review and give me opinions and pointers on my OCs and the Nox location (which I imagine as a kind of underground favella, like they have in Brazil) please let me know. Was the writing OK?**

 **Above all, I hope you enjoyed it, and tanks so much for being pacient.**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Appologies at end of chapter. Underline indicates Vulpine**

 **PATIENT DIAGNOSIS FORM**

 **Name:** Viola Lucile Wilde

 **Age:** 33

 **Adress:** 17 Rowantree Crescent, Savannah Central, Zootopia Inner Boroughs

 **Postcode:** HE7 J84

 **Diagnosis:** The patient is afflicted with piercing migranes of varying length (though the pattern shown suggests they will continue getting longer and more intense). During said migranes the patuient seems to lose her grip on reality. she often becomes confused, not even recognising her closest loved ones, and begins to relive past events. This validates a link between her symptoms and recent emotional trauma (losing her husband of 16 years). I believe the removal of her psychological 'rock' has led to a crisis in her sense of self, causing her to revisit and re-evaluate the formative moments of her life - particularly those related to her late husband - in an attempt to hide herself from a reality too harsh to cope with.

 **Treatment:** I am perscribing strong sedatives to encourage dreamless sleep, and pain relief medication to be administered in the event of further migranes. However, at its core this is not a physical issue, and I must recommend the patient to a psychological specialist. In the future anti-depressants may become necessary, but for now it is imperative she has a substitute 'rock' to help her through the grieveing process. Do not allow the patient to become isolated. Removing her ties to the present reality or making her feel unwanted here may cause a permenant disorder to develop in distinguishing between past and present.

DO NOT LEAVE THE PATIENT ALONE.

 **Signed:** Dr H. Mallard

 **...**

 **LOCATION UNKNOWN**

Nick didn't know what he'd done to piss off Fair Lady Luck so bad, but the Almighty sure wasn't pulling any punches.

"Wha- I don't- how-" His unwavering allies through the very worst his life could dish out, now the words wouldn't come, not the way he needed them to, and they punctuated by rattling heaves he hated himself for being unable to control. Finn was talking, but Nick couldn't make out those words either. He didn't care. His gaze was locked onto hers, his mind a steaming wreck. She stared steadily back with the same eyes that had haunted him for twenty years. She was crying. He always used to make her cry.

Her keening and the sharp crack of a breaking photo frame echoed back through the years.

Nick couldn't breathe; it felt like he was drowning again, desperate and thrashing but unable to move. Finn's mouth was moving, but the sound was muffled as if Nick was still underwater. Some fleeting little scrap of common sense that survived the carnage inside told him to listen. His life could depend on those words. Thier lives.

Nick dragged himself upwards and broke the surface.

"- and if you lie to us, I swear to God Nicky, you'll live just long enough to watch her die."

He felt pure rage clear the fog of shock and pain from his mind.

"You disgusting waste of fur! Who was calling me a pet for refusing to help his mother?! And you think this'l make me talk?! All you've done is prove your morals are worth as much as your own shit you stupid, _stupid_ mutt! Were you born like this or did your parents adopt you from the Zoo?!"

Silence.

Finn stepped forward and backhanded Viola across the face. The crack made Nick's stomach turn inside out and he had to bite his cheek to stop himself vomiting. He averted his eyes from her face, to anywhere but her face, because if those eyes found him again they'd never let him go and he needed to _think_ now. The game had changed. The survivor had to be back in control; emotion in the backseat.

"In case I hadn't made it clear." Finn said, squatting down beside her and looking Nick right in the eye. "You try to play us, she dies. You irritate me, she dies. You breathe the wrong way, she dies."

Nick bit back a torrent of curses. Calm. Think like Judy. Find your inner bunny.

"OK. Fine. Start again."

"Where's the package?" Finn asked.

"No clue."

Finn snarled and drew back his paw and Nick felt some distant part of him break. Then his mother turned to face Finn with eyes full of hellfire and a voice full of venom.

"You kill me if you like, Finnley Hunter. But I swear if you harm another hair on my boy's head I will come back from the dead just to kick your ass."

Nick blinked. That did not sound like the living phantom he remembered. That sure as hell did _not_ sound like a mammal with no grip on reality. He could almost believe that was the old Mom, and the idea gave him strength.

Finn stared at her with his mouth agape, obviously wondering why the old vixen was refusing to follow the script. He hit her. She cowered. Nick did what he was told. She wasn't meant to be defiant. That was just rude.

Finn's body convulsed slightly, like he was trying to shake off stomach cramps. His eyes flicked over to Nick and he must've seen something there Nick wasn't quick enough to catch, because it was plain on Finn's face he was thinking hard. It looked painful.

"Alright fine. It's pretty clear everyone here is a little shocked, so why don't Benny and I step out for a second and let you two catch up? You can think over how important helping us is for the both of you." Finn offered them a sour little smile, as if they were the luckiest mammals in the world to have such a kind, considerate host and they really didn't deserve him. A dark stain was forming on Nick's shoulder from the steady drip of blood oozing down his face. Finn gestured and Benny shuffled out of the door, then he made to follow. He looked back round. "Five minutes. We'll be watching."

The door slammed and Nick was left alone with his thoughts and his greatest regret in the universe. Her eyes found him at last, and he felt the world slip out from under him.

 **...**

 **THE NOX**

The stairs creaked too loudly. Deep in the belly of the building someone was moaning feebly, like a terminal patient in a hospital calling out for a nurse they knew would never come. The stairs wound round in tight, crooked circles inside the hollowed out tree trunk, up and up and up. Originally these buildings had only been intended for a small number of nocturnal creatures, but as the district had become awash with the destitute more floors had been stuck on top to acommodate the population surge. Each landing opened onto a new set of apartments, offering Judy brief snapshots of life in the Nox. A family of mice dividing a slice of bread between ten, a sack of skin and fur that used to be a puma slumped over in a corner, waiting for the inevitable.

"I'm proud of you, y'know." She didn't know what made her say it. Maybe she just needed a reminder she wasn't completely alone.

"For what? Getting my tail kicked?" Six laughed.

"For trying."

"Do I get one of those Junior Detective stickers?" He asked.

"You want one?" Judy grinned. After three years living, sleeping and breathing Nick Wilde, sarcasm just bounced off her. Six stared like she'd just asked, _Hey, you want me to give you bubonic plague for Christmas?_

"Unbelieveable."

Judy smiled wider; now she wasn't so caught up in her own head, different, cheerier things began to jump out at her. In one appartment two grizzly bears and their cub clung to each other for warmth; they were thin as rakes, but at least they looked happy. A peal of laughter rang out from somewhere high above. This was how the Nox defined Zootopia and its promises: a refuge for the needy and the hopeless, it represented second chances and thrummed with an untapped energy. The potential for something greater.

"I just wish I could do more for these mammals too."

Six's shoulders hunched and he picked up the pace, as if trying to leave her behind.

"The last time you played Good Samaritan it almost got you killed. You can't solve these problems without understanding them fully."

"I understand them fine."

Six laughed sharply.

"Obviously not, because you still think you can do it all on your own. It's like trying to dam a river with a twig, Hopps." Judy was having to jog to keep up with him now; the steps were steep and uneven."do your parents know thier daughter is a kinky sex addict yet?"

"Wha- I am _not_ kinky!" Judy almost tripped over herself at the sudden swerve in conversation.

"Oh please, you sleep with a creature God designed to eat you. That's, like, the _definition_ of kinky. In fact, if I looked up kinky in the dictionary I'm pretty sure ithere'd be a little diagram of you there with the caption _'Forgive me for my sins'"_

"OK enough." Judy snapped, but she could tell Six was actually smiling now, which was about as rare as a flying pig, and she had to fight back a smirk herself. "I assume you're dragging me up these stairs for a reason?"

"Yep. I've got a lead. Apparently she used to run with him back in the day."

"You think it's someone from his past?"

"Uh-huh. Recently there's been a - ahem - _hostile_ takeover of some of the smaller businesses in town, and it's sent all the old vermin crawling out of the woodwork." In the half light of the mushroom lamps his eyes were gaunt tunnels. What kind of life did that to a kit, so that in fourteen brief years he looked older than her grandfather?

"And why wouldn't I like them? Your contact, I mean."

"She's an old flame. _The_ old flame. and when I say old flame, I really mean a roaring bonfire that makes all the others look like itty bitty embers-"

"OK! Think I get the point." Judy cut him off before he got too carried away. He grinned toothily.

"Ah, here we are." They'd reached the very top of the tower; Six led her along a narrow passage to an old door, rusted shut. He solved this problem with a few hefty kicks, and they stepped out onto the roof. It was a wildly uneven plain of couragated iron and half rotten wood; thickets of ancient TV ariels sprouted from the gaps between sheets like mushrooms, and washing lines crisscrossed the gaps betweem them. The space was dominated by the great tree trunk, forcing itself up and away from the squallor, straight as an arrow. Judy walked over to the edge and peered down, wondering if she could see her cruiser (and her parents) from up here. She couldn't; the view was blocked by the uneven shape of the building. "You'd think, being underground and all, we wouldn't have to worry about rain." Six shouted, gesturing to the steady pitter patter of liquid from somewhere high above, "but no. The great city of Zootopia is literally pissing on us." He pointed upward, and Judy followed his finger. Up among the stalactites was what looked like an upside down village, with tierd roofs that reminded Judy of Japanese temples "She's barricaded herself in way up there." Six pointed again, at the building two across from them. "The settlement was built for the bats, before they realised how much Zootopia hated people with wings and they skipped town. She's got two, maybe three armed guards. Figure she heard about whoever your guy is being back and got spooked." He walked over to where the tree trunk pushed out of the tower. Squinting through the gloom, Judy saw it connected directly to the nearest upside-down building. "So. There's your beanstalk, and up there is the land of Giants. Have fun and try not to die."

"I'll keep that in mind." she said drily, and Six grinned. She laid a paw on his arm. "Thank you. Honestly." the grin evaporated and he turned to go back the way they'd come. Judy stared up at the tree, trying not to think about everything that could go wrong... She whirled back around. "Six? Could you do me a favour and look out for my parents?"

He froze, and for a second she thought he was going to run. Then he turned back, an impish gleam in his eye.

"Fine. But I'd better get that sticker. A personalised one with my name on, too. Besides, this means I've got some alone time to reveal the true extent of your kinkiness..." he let the implication hang gleefuly in the air.

"You tell them anything about my sex life and I will tase you, so help me Six..."

But he was already gone, swallowed by the night. Judy shook her head and turned back to the tree; it seemed infinitely tall. Oh well; you never get anywhere worrying. Judy began to climb.

It was time to slay a giant.

 **...**

 _ **TUNDRA TOWN**_

 _Night came quickly to Tundra Town, stealing up from behind when no one was looking. Wind howled through the streets, screaming insults at anything that moved, pausing only to whisper warnings to three dark figures huddled on a lonely street corner. Waiting._

 _If he was fighting a war, Nicky felt like he was stuck in the trenches. He was cold, he was soaked to the bone, and to top it all off he couldn't shake the feeling this was a terrible idea. Meeting up with three extremely shifty strangers in the middle of the night to do something extremely illegal was not, he had to admit, extremely smart. The rain sheeted down, an icy trickle creeping down his neck and matting his fur into sodden clumps. He watched absent mindedly as the downpour reduced the snow drifts on the sidewalk to disgusting slush, wondering just what the hell he was doing here._

 _He stole another glance at his companions; To his left Finn was shifting from foot to foot, swearing idly about thier luck with the weather. On Finn's other side stood a female arctic fox, maybe two years older than Nicky. Finn had introduced her as Andrea and left it at that. She'd completely ignored Nicky's proffered paw and hadn't said a word since. Honestly, an iceberg would've been more welcoming. Still, he couldn't help but wonder about her. Which was stupid and distracting, but there was something... Intriguing? No that wasn't the right word. She was magnetic, though he wasn't sure why. Maybe it was the way she stood there, framed in the washed out glow of a street lamp._ (You're blushing. Stop blushing. What are you, six?) _Maybe it was the way droplets of rain were beading on her slicked back fur like tiny pearls._ (If your face was any hotter you could cook on it.) _Maybe it was the way -_ (AHEM.)

 _Nicky glanced away and back up the street. The final member of thier group was supposed to be here twenty minutes ago, and the long wait was making his skin crawl. Maybe this was a mistake -_

 _"Hey Nicky, where you going?" Finn asked. Nicky blinked and realised he was facing away from the other two, foot poised to start walking. The street becokoned him home, where he'd be safe from this insanity. Where his mother lay in wait._

 _"Nowhere." he said hurriedly, wrenching himself back round. It was no good; the guilt writhed and itched under his fur, and Nicky had to clench his fist to stop himself trying to scratch it out._

 _A small car slooshed to a halt in front of them. A tidal wave of gutter water soaked Nicky up to the leapt back, swearing viciously._ (Well that's one way to take your mind off things.)

 _The car door was kicked open and a smallish, mud spattered mammal squeezed out._

 _"Ah. This, gentlemammal, lady, is our getaway driver. Meet Benny."_

 _Nicky probably would've said something spectacularly witty that was garunteed to make arctic fox girls everywhere swoon_ (Stop it. You're embarassing yourself.) _but he'd just realised that the 'small mammal' was in fact a 'freaking enormous arm'. The rest of their getaway driver was still struggling out of the car._

 _"What the hell is that?" Nicky finally broke the silence._

 _"He's a mole." Finn said defensively, as if he'd had this argument many times before. The car began rocking violently as the rest of Benny attempted to follow his arm out into the open._

 _"That's not a mole, That's a boulder with legs. He's six feet at least!" The car bounced so hard the windows rattled. Benny's arm began grabbing blindly for something to hold on to and Andrea had to leap back to avoid being groped._

 _"So?"_

 _"So that's like walking down the street and seeing a twenty foot fox!" Nicky almost shouted. The car gave a temendous lurch and moaned like a dying thing. The situation was ripe for a dirty joke, but right now he was too furioous to care._

 _"I dunno - maybe he was adopted." Finn suggested. Nicky wondered if he had a condition, or if he'd been dropped on his head when he was small._

 _"Ado- can you even hear yourself?" He didn't care how noble thier ideals were, he wasn't going to jail for this mutt and his pal Jumbo Jim._

 _"Newbie's got a point, Finnley." Andrea interrupted, shocking him into silence. Her voice wasn't biting and brittle as he'd expected, but warm and dark and rich. "Not exactly discreet, is he?" She gestured to the car, which started bucking like a bronco as if to prove her point. "We go in with him, we may as well snap the cuffs on ourselves. Besides, I thought he was our getaway driver?"_

 _"He is! Sort of..." Finn's eyes darted from fox to fox. He had the look of a general who'd realised too late he'd been outflanked, and it was this look of utter incompetience that made Nicky find his voice again._

 _"Just look at him Finn; what the hell can he get away from? Maybe a sloth, if he had a head start of about twenty miles -"_

 _"Alright enough!" Finn snarled. Something feral flashed in his eyes, and Nicky realised he'd crossed a line. "For your information, Benny is the best tunnel digger in the business. He's gonna get me to the underground safe of the club we're hitting without having to worry about any security at all. I've worked with him before, his equipment can get me from here to there in just half an hour, and he's the best at using it, so shut up about him being an idiot. In his car there's earpieces, disguises, blueprints, everything you two need to get into the club and get the combination from the owner." he turned on Andrea, "So, unless you want to try and woo this guy looking like a drowned rat, stop complaining. And you," he turned on Nicky "If you don't feel comfortable about this you can run back to Mommy with your tail between your legs like a good little predator. Understand?"_

 _Nicky opened his mouth. And closed it again._

 _Finally, with a noise like a toilet plunger being removed, Benny spilled out onto the frosted pavement. Nicky found himself regretting he'd never gotten round to writing a will._

 **...**

 **THE NOX**

Judy heaved herself up onto solid ground with a heavy grunt and rolled onto her back, so she could just take a moment to appreciate how much that _freaking hurt_.

The building groaned slightly like a great ship tilting in the wind; her ears detected the faintest of hissing sounds from above, like the shallow breathing of the soon-to-be dead.

She gave herself all of five seconds to let the exauhstion seep through her bones. Then she jumped up, flicking on her torch and panning it around the tight little box of a room. Judy felt like a great explorer from one of those adventure serials she'd loved as a kit; unearthing the secrets of some lost civilisation, untouched for aeons.

Well, not quite aeons, but long enogh for a thick carpet of dust to muffle everything in sight. The stuff was layered so deep in the corners it formed drifts like snow. The tree trunk continued through the building, where she knew it finally branched out and brushed the very roof of the cavern. Judy cast the torch beam upwards, past the moulding floral wallpaper. A mass of tangled piping caught the pale light, jagged peices of metal puncturing the skin of the ceiling like shards of broken bone.

A cluster of milky eyes peeked through the gaps and Judy felt her breath hitch in her throat. The size of those eyes promised a monster of a spider, maybe even a tarantula. She had a brief flash of her last, horrifying liason with City Pest Control; they weren't much of a threat to bigger species, but a good sized spider was bad news for someone who didn't have many centimetres to spare.

 _Just keep moving, just keep moving. If you don't bother him he won't bother you. Or she. It could be a she. Stop it. You're rambling. Focus._

She set a tentative paw on the wooden floorboards; they literally sagged under the pressure.

 _OK Judy, round the edges. One step at a time._

Somehow she made it to the window without falling through the floor, tiptoeing like a drunken ballerina, and leaned out into the open. Ms Ex-Flame was holed up two buildings along, and Judy needed to get to her before she could do any actual questioning. Assuming she wouldn't be shot on sight.

The tiled roof below the windowsill had a large overhang; a platform ringing the bottom of the tower. There was a small gap, then the neighbouring tower, a three tiered thing like an upside down wedding cake. Assuming the roof took her weight, Judy figured she should be able to get to the tier she was level with (the top one) no problem. Of course, she was Lord-knows how many feet up. If she jumped and missed she'd have enough time to say a prayer before becoming a rabbit pancake on the sidewalk. It was a stupid idea. Not even worth thinking about.

Judy pocketed her torch and climbed out. It was better not to think about it at all. She would just do it. After all, she'd been long jump champion three years in a row. In junior school. But this was no different, except for the platform disintergrating beneath her feet and the wind grasping at her clothes and how easy it would be to make instant rabbit pancake right now. But she'd learnt a long time ago that to be a cop you had to take chances. Don't think. Do.

Judy took a deep breath. And jumped.

Time slowed to a crawl. For a single, perfect moment she knew she would make it. Her body was almost horizontal, fingers stretched out to meet the ledge halfway.

Then gravity took hold.

She'd miscalculated. Suddenly the small gap was the gaping, greedy maw of an unspeakable monster dragging her down, down, _down_. The tips of her fingers caught the edge at the last second, desperately scrabbling for purchase. The tiles crumbled like old papyrus.

Judy dropped like a stone.

And that was it. She was done. The wind howled in triumph as it gobbled her down; _Better think of a prayer quick, rabbit, 'cause guess what's on the menu?_

Her hands shot out, body angling for the building's second tier.

Judy's chest slammed into the platform, little claws digging into the gaps between tiles. For a moment she hung over the yawning black, gravity's magnetic pull dragging her down.

She hoisted herself up, rolled onto her back again and waited for the breath to come back to her.

"One down, one to go." she told no one in particular.

 **...**

 _ **TUNDRA TOWN**_

 _Nicky had never been to a party like it._

 _It was like walking onto the set of an old '20s noir movie, like the cassettes gathering dust on the top shelf at home. they were Dad's favourites, and they used to watch them again and again..._

 _The whole place was lavishly decorated in shades of deepest russet and crimson, as if in defiance of the icy hues outside. The walls were roughly hewn rock, with cosy little alcoves carved out of the stone every few metres. Cigar smoke and jazz music floated on the air,and through the greyish fug Nicky could make out dozens of lamplit tables dotted about a sunken floor, opening up onto a massive dance floor packed with mammals buzzing with the natter of smalltalk and the clink of glasses. Beyond the scrum of the crowd the room was dominated by a brightly lit stage, and on the stage there were..._

 _"You need a minujte there, Wilde?" asked Andrea._

 _"Huh?" Nicky grunted, tearing his eyes away, "Nah, I'm good, it's just -" he gestured helplessly "is that even legal?"_

 _Something very close to a smirk ghosted across her face._

 _"You act like that means something here. Besides, that -" she too gestured up at the stage and it's tranfixing horrors -"that is a good thing. Tells us a lot about our mark's interesting tastes, which means this is more likely to work."_

 _"It'll never work."_

 _"Just move, Red."_

 _They set out in opposite directions, circling the dance floor, eyes jumping from face to face. Nicky kept catching himself staring at Andrea instead. Benny had brought dry changes of clothes for them in hs car; a suit for him, a dress for her, and that dress... There was nothing particularly scandalous or racy about the design, no dangerously low cut, just a simple backless number, but it just so happened to be snowy white. Like her. It gave the appearence of almost not being there, and invited not only second looks, but also thirds and fourths of a very keen sort. And even when you'd looked her over properly and confirmed (not without a twinge of disappointment) that what you didn't think was there actually was, the suggestion... lingered, like heady perfume. Nicky had understood immediately why the dress had been chosen; any warm blooded male with alcohol in his system would go haywire at the sight of it, but good God was it distracting._

 _Considering the way his night was going, Nicky really shouldn't have been surprised by this newest kick in the balls, but that didn't stop him wanting to find Benny and punch him upside the head._

 _"So, Snowflake." He began conversationally. Across the floor Andrea clutched at her ear like a drowning thing, and Nicky winced, "don't touch your ear." he hissed, and watched as she casually turned the motion into an ear scratch before lowering her arm. Goddamn, she was good under pressure. "So," he began again,"I was thinking... If you bail now, so will I."_

 _Nicky watched her face carefully for any kind of reaction, but all he saw was polite intrest in the comings and goings of the crowd._

 _"If you want to go then fine. Making a difference obviously isn't as important to you as it is to the rest of us, so why don't you take up Finn's offer and run back home?"_

 _Her tone was icy cool and carefully measured, but Nicky could sense the derision lurking underneath and it pushed all the wrong buttons._

 _"You don't even know me!" It came out a little louder than intended and he cursed himself for it; he was meant to be testing her, not showing off his own incompitence._

 _"I don't have to know you; it's written all over your face." she replied._

 _"Yeah, whatever. I know for a fact my emotionally scarring backstory is more tragic than yours anyway."_

 _"Is that your oh so subtle attempt to get me to open up and pour out my soul to you?"_

 _"No, this is me winging it and hoping for the best."_ (She might actually be able to pull this off.)

 _"Will you two stop flirting and get on with the damn job?" Finn cut in over the earpieces._

 _Nicky had reached the sweeping staircase in the far right corner, ascending to a first floor balcony hanging over the dance floor and leaning out. This space had been converted into a minature casino; Nicky lifted a champagne glass from a passing waiter and tried to blot out the chiming of the slot machines as he returned to sifting through the faces below._

 _Their mark was standing in the centre of the throng, a girl on his arm and the fakest smile Nicky had ever seen plastered on his face. A quick once over took in the sumptuous cotton blazer, the solid silver rings and the watch worth more than Nicky's whole house. And hot damn, Finn hadn't been lying when he said the guy had a taste for the unusual. He was a beaver, but his lady friend - draped in satin and sequins - was a leopard, for crying out loud. It was clear to Nicky the poor schmuck was bored to tears and just begging for a distraction, so this might actually work._

 _"OK, Andrea-"_

 _"Juliet! Her codename is Juliet!" Finn barked down the line, muffled by the noises of Benny's digging._

 _"OK, Andrea, he's at your nine o'clock. Time to make an impression."_

 _He watched as Andrea glided across the floor, tail swishing hypnotically back and forth. She brushed ever so lightly against the beaver as she passed, and turned to fix him with those eyes deep enough to drown in. Nicky's heart jumped like an agitated grasshopper. A small smile graced her lips as if sharing a private joke, just for them and only them, the rest of these idiots be damned. Then she turned and walked away, making sure the beaver could see her seat herself at the bar, alone._

 _Hook, line and sinker._

 _It was brilliantly understated and perfectly executed; not too heavy on the sex appeal (The Dress, Nicky thought bitterly, had taken care of that for her) with just a hint of vunerability and lashings of mystery. It was apparent at this point Andrea had done this before; she was a consumate professional._

 _"Finn, she's got him." Nicky said, weaving between gamblers as he headed for a spot just above the bar._

 _"Big Daddy! I told you my codename is Big Daddy!" was Finn's only response._

 _"Will you shut up about codenames?" Nicky muttered, pulling at his collar. Fifteen minutes ago he'd been freezing his tail off, but now he was cooking under his skin._

 _"Code names are important, Romeo! What if someone's listening in?"_

 _"Then they've already heard our real names anyway." Nicky snapped. The beaver was making a beeline for Andrea, and the look he was giving her exposed back made something dark curl in the pit of Nicky's stomach. A waiter passed bearing a platter of fish-themed nibbles, and he would've been tempted if it hadn't been in keeping with his day for the salmon sandwhiches to give him salmonella._

 _"What if we change codenames?" Finn wasn't letting go,"You could call me tthe Big D instead."_

 _Nicky choked on his champagne._

 _"I am NOT calling you that-"_

 _"Can you two get a room or shut up?" Andrea hissed, as the beaver descened upon her. There was an empty stool to her right, but instead he decided to vault himself onto the bar itself, real understated like._

 _"I want a glass of Chateau Lafeat in every guest's paws within twenty minutes," he ordered boisterously, "And make sure everyone has a bottle to take home at the end of the night, on the house."_

 _The bartender, an overworked looking penguin who was probably paid half of what he was legally owed, nodded and waddled off. The beaver turned to Andrea, eyes flitting over The Dress and back up to her face. His smile had mutated into something so smarmy the oil was practically dripping off it. ""Impressed yet?"_

 _Andrea regarded him with a playful little smirk that made Nicky's stomach do backflips._

 _"I'm more of a burban girl."_

 _"Tut tut, we'll have to fix that." grinned the beaver, and suddenly Nicky wanted nothing more than to tip his champagne glass over the balcony and onto this greasy little shit's head. The greasy little shit reached for Andrea's paw and began stroking it tenderly. "You know, you have the look of a vixen with extreme taste. The burban non-withstanding." Andrea's eyes sparkled right on cue, as if this was the funniest thing she'd ever heard. The beaver leaned forward. Everything was going to plan. "My dear, have you ever considered-"_

 _Then the plan imploded._

 _Nicky's earpeice exploded with screams and shouts and the thunder of tumbling rubble. His body jerked and his champagne went all over a passing beagle. But that wasn't the worst of it. Below him Andrea's claws had buried themselves in the beaver's paw, which was now being crushed n her grasp. The moment was over in a second, and from here Nicky could see she hadn't broken the skin, but the damage was already done; pain and shock and confusion painted all over the beaver's face._

 _He stared at Andrea for a moment, and to her credit she tried to salvage the situation with a smile and a tilt of her head. Then he turned and melted into the crowd._

 _"Finnley, what the hell was that?!" she seethed. No answer but the sound of haggard coughing. At least they hadn't died, although looking Andrea's face she might soon fix that._

 _"Sorry." Finn wheezed out on the other end, "We hit a steam pipe that wasn't in the blueprints. What happened?"_

 _"What happened is you scared him off." Nicky said, as he descended back down to the ground floor two steps at a time. He was barely able to keep the glee out of his voice._

 _"Shit." spat Finn, "Is that it? Are we blown?"_

 _"You think?" Andrea deapanned, frustration leaking out of her usual watertight calm. Nicky pushed through the crowd towards her, and as he did he caught sight of the beaver, still staring at her back with a conflicted, almost wistful expression. And it came to him like lightning; an easy fix that would put everything right back on track. Or he could just head home and forget this whole shambles had ever happened. Mom would need her meds by now._

"Making a difference obviously isn't as important to you as it is to the rest of us."

 _He could_ not _catch a break tonight._

 _"Keep going, we might not be blown," he said, reaching Andrea. "I'm playing a hunch," he told her,"Don't hit me." He leaned forward and kissed her._

 _A bolt of lightning shot through his chest, sharp and shocking. She tasted of mint. She exhaled slightly into his mouth, maybe a gasp of shock, and it was like his head was filling with helium because he could've sworn he was floating six feet off he ground._

 _And then it was over and she was looking at him with those eyes more beautiful than saphires, and for a second he almost believed that kiss had been real. Almost. He grinned at her as if to say_ bet'cha never saw that coming _, before turning and losing himself in the crowd once more._

 _From a safe distance he watched as the beaver sauntered over to her. They exchanged a few words and Andrea made a face like she'd just been poisoned. The beaver laughed too loud, offered her his arm and led her backstage, where Nicky knew a private elevator would be waiting to take them to his office in the basement. All exactly according to plan._

 _God, he hated being a soldier._

 **...**

 **LOCATION UNKNOWN**

"Mom?" Feeling the word on his lips again was unreal. This couldn't be happening to him, could it? Maybe he was still halucinating. Maybe she was an actress. Maybe- Then she smiled at him exactly the same way she used to when he was small, _excatly the same way_ , and Nick's heart stalled and all the excuses drained out through his feet because _holy shit_ this was his _mother_. Deep breaths. Inner bunny. Find your inner bunny. Carrots. Optimism. Be unstoppable now. "You hurt?"

"No."

There were a million and one questions on the tip of his tounge, things he wanted to know and things he needed to know even if he really didn't want to, but Finn was watching them like a hawk and he could feel their time ticking away.

"What did they tell you?" he asked.

"They need something, you have it and they'll kill us if you don't give it to them. What else is there to know?"

"Well, for starters, I don't actually have this thing they're after," Nick confessed,"so they're probably going to try and kill us anyway. Emphasis on 'try'." he attempted one of his signature cocksure grins to convince her it was all OK (holy shit it had never been worse), but then he remembered those had never worked on her anyway, so he stopped. "Don't worry, though. I've been here before. Sort of. OK, not really, but I know what I'm doing. You just have to trust me, OK?"

"Trust you." She stared at his mangled ear. Her tone was even and her gaze unwavering, and a part of Nick wished he had her courage, which was insane because last time he'd seen her he'd thought she could never be fixed.

"Yeah."

"None of this would've happened if you hadn't run around like a hooligan while I was sick."

"You 're bringing this up now?!" he was incredulous, "You want to argue about this _now_ , when we might have literally minutes to live?"

"I might not be able to later!"

"Well, how about you save the I-told-you-sos for later, and let me focus on keeping us alive?"

Her eyes spat, but she closed them and took another deep breath.

"You're right." She nodded, as if that was supposed to make everything better, "We can argue about you being irresponsible later."

Normally he'd just let that slide, but Nick still couldn't think straight and it was taking all he had to ignore the white hot branding iron pressing down on the place where his ear had been.

"Irresponsible? I was fifteen, Mom! You want to talk about being irresponsible, how about your refusal to help me?"

"I'd just lost my husband-" she protested.

"I'd lost both my parents!" He hated the smallness of his voice and how vunerable it made him feel, but it was the only way he could get the words out and he'd be damned if he died with a single one left unsaid.

"Where were you when my school told me I was a failure before I'd even started my life, and all the other kits said my dad's name was mud and my mom was a psycho and I'd better run away now before I got what I deserved too?"

Her face was a terrible blend of misery and anger and something else he couldn't name. Some warning light in the back of his head told him if he kept going she was going to break again, but his anger had mind of it's own now, so he closed his eyes and surrendered himself to the flood.

"Stop. Now." she spat, a feral snarl flickering on her muzzle, but he couldn't now, not for anything, so he jabbed and jabbed and jabbed.

"Where were you when I'd lost myself and I needed you more than ever? I went to a priest, y'know that Mom? I had a confessional, and after he heard what I'd done he told me I'd better prepare myself because 'Hevean doesn't help the fox'. I was literally going to Hell and where were you?!"

The red misma faded as quickly as it had come, stealing away and leaving his mind in emotional freefall. His inner bunny lay dead and twitching in some dark corner of his subconcious. The silence was frigid and suffocating and the twisted trainwreck of emotion on her face was so raw and solid the ground at her feet was the only thing anywhere near her he could force himself to look at.

He needed her to speak, to forgive him and tell him she understood and it was going to be OK. Then she opened her mouth, and what came out fluttered along a delicate line between sob and snarl, but the words themselves were barbed and poisonous and hurt more than he thought possible.

"Fuck off."

She shivered and he watched her shatter in her seat, as if cursing at him (at him, for the first time in his life) had made her irrevocably, impossibly more fragile.

And then, as inevitable as a funeral bell, the door scraped open, announcing Finn's arrival like the horsemen of the apocalypse. Nick glanced upward, still dazed, and had just enough sense left to register that Finn was smiling. The truth laid into him like a piledriver.

That was the pont. Finn hadn't wanted them to 'catch up'; he'd wanted them to destroy each other. As long as they couldn't talk to each other, he and Mom gave each other strength. Finn had given them a clothes line and told them to hang all their shit out to dry for him to use. And Nick hadn't seen it because he'd been knocked sideways by this whole goddamn situation.

As Finn began to talk again several things floated to the surface of Nick's mind. The first was Judy's voice, light and teasing, from the first day they met.

 _"It's called a hustle, sweetheart."_

At the same time he realised what the third emotion was, the one on his Mother's face that he couldn't name.

Guilt.

 **...** _ **TUNDRA TOWN**_

 _The elevator door slid open with a cheerful chime and Nicky was engulfed in sweltering heat. He nodded at Benny, who'd been waiting for him, and they walked across the space to the manager's office. The beaver had converted his basement into a massive hot spring sauna; wisps of steam escaped the fissures that webbed the heated stone floor, condensation ran down the curvature of the walls and dribbled off small stalactites into sunken craters that had been converted into hot tubs. Positioned around the tubs were clusters of tall steam vents. Every few seconds they would rumble like the Savannah Central subway and release jets of steam into the already oppressively humid atmosphere. They passed several mammals enjoying these creature comforts, but the guests paid them no mind._

 _Benny opened the door for him and Nick stepped through, to be greeted with the oh-so satisfying sight of the beaver manager unconscious on the huge double bed, trussed up like a turkey. The tunnel Benny had dug came out right in the centre of the room, and to the left Finn was working on the safe bolted into the wall, the tacky imitation painting that had hidden it lying on the floor forgotten. Andrea was waiting patiently in the corner, by a second door. Nicky tip toed over, avioding the giant hole in the floor, afraid she might try to do something rash, like rip off his head._

 _"Hi." he said awkwardly. Andrea looked at him expressionlessly._

 _"Hi."_

 _"Look, I just want to apologise for that... thing."_ (No. You want to tell her you've gotten a little obsessed in an hour of knowing her and the best way you could ever think of dying would be drowning in her eyes-)

 _"It was brilliant." She interrupted. Nicky froze. Did his heart just skip a beat? Maybe he had a medical condition._

 _"It... was?" Nicky was extremely concious of the way the humidity was making his shirt cling to him like a second skin._

 _"Yeah. Tactical masterstroke; we wouldn't be here without you." There was definately something wrong with him, because now blood was pounding in his ears like a war drum._

 _"Yep. Tactics. That's what I'm good at. Tactical stuff and other tactical... things."_ (I think you have a bad case of verbal diarreah. Might want to get that looked at, pal.)

 _The safe popped open and Finn stood, dusting himself down. It didn't do much good; dirt covered him from head to foot."OK, the code Andrea got was good." He snatched up a small package from inside Nicky didn't get to see. Finn turned to them with a serious expression. "By the way, nice job up there you two, but next time, I get to seduce the rich guy." He gestured to himself. The humidity was turning the dirt into pulpy mud, which was running off him to stain the beaver's thousand dollar carpet. Oops._

 _Nicky was about to tell Finn what he could do next time was not screw the damn plan up, but he was interrupted by the sound of a muffled pawstep. His ears flicked away: Someone was close by, and didn't want to be heard..._

 _Then he noticed the security camera._

 _Shit._

 _He grabbed Andrea's paw. She tried to pull away, but they didn't have time... A floorboard creaked and she froze too._

 _"Guys, I think we need to-"_

 _For the second time that night, all hell broke loose. The back door splintered like a matchstick and three security gaurds came pouring in. Finn swore and Benny was simply gone. A spray of bullets fanned out above, burying themselves in the walls and Nicky ducked down, lunging for the sauna door, Andrea in tow._

 _They pelted out the door and into a wall of white. The guests were caught in a panicked rush for the elevator; dark shapes bore down on them from every side. There were more bangs, and suddenly there were bullets, stone slinters and fresh screams flying everywhere. A wet crunching sound announced one of the bullets had found its mark and a guest toppled backward out of the fog._

 _Nicky's world shrank to the two feet of space in front and the feel of Andrea's paw in his. He vaulted a boulder and leapt a crevice. A monster loomed out of the mist and Nicky flinched back, sprinting away to the left. Disembodied shouts echoed from every direction. He couldn't see, he couldn't breathe; it felt like he was being smothered with a soaking wet blanket._

 _A guard burst out of the fog to his right and tore his legs from under him; they went tumbling into a pool with a massive splash, water spraying all over the floor. Andrea's paw was ripped away and another set of iron paws closed around his neck. Nicky went mad, clawing and biting. He kicked out without thinking and felt something crunch under his heel. The pressure released and he he scrambled away, coughing and spluttering. He'd lost Andrea in the struggle._

 _The pool behind him exploded and out shot the guard. Nicky stumbled backwards, but the slippery floor betrayed him. He went sprawling, his head cracking on a steam vent. The next thing he knew the guard was on him. Nicky's throat was being crushed. His vision was turning splotchy. Red spots burst in front of his eyes. His claws scrabbled uselessly against the guard's arms. His heart pounded in his ears. Nicky tried to tear free, but didn't have the strength. The pounding in his ears faded to a wavering pulse._

 _The vent began to rumble._

 _A torrent of steam roared upwards and Nicky rolled towards it, pulling the guard with him so he landed with his back square in the middle of the geyser. He screamed. The pressure on Nicky's throat vanished, and the guard was swallowed by the tendrils of mist, squealing and pawing at his blistered back._

 _Nicky lurched upwards. The steam cleared and he could see the door again, beckoning him to the empty office where the tunnel promised him freedom._

 _Andrea screamed._

 _He turned, and there she was, sprawled across a rock, a slash above her right eye cutting tracks of crimson through her white fur. The second guard towered over her, sporting a cut lip and what looked like a broken jaw. But he was holding a gun._

 _Nicky didn't even think. he charged like a bull and caught the guard in the side. They crashed backwards, the gun skittering away, and Nicky rolled onto his feet, lashing out with a jab that would've knocked his opponent unconscious, but his fist fell on empty air. The guard's elbow whipped round and cracked across the side of Nicky's face. He stumbled back, barely missing a second elbow aimed for his abdomen._

 _Nicky skipped back, shaking his head to clear the stars from his eyes. Who the hell did he think he was, a superhero? This guy was professional!_ (OK calm down. Rationalise. Remember what Dad taught you. Read his body.) _Nicky was in a bad way; his nose was bleeding and his head was spinning. There was no way he'd survive this!_ (Focus.) _Nicky barely dodged the next punch; he felt the breeze as it skimmed his ear._ (WILL YOU STOP BEING STUBBORN AND FIGHT LIKE DAD TAUGHT YOU?!)

 _The guard lunged again, but this time Nicky could see it coming and ducked under his arm, delivering a one-two-three to the chest that sent his attacker stumbling back._ (Good boy, champ. Remember to punch with your body not your fists.) _Nicky swiveled and the gaurd steamed past like a train. Nicky's whole body swung with a right hook that caught the guy right in the rib._ (Atta boy, that's bett-) _Nicky felt his legs get kicked from under him, pain shooting through his nose as it slapped the rocky floor. His paws scrabbled desperately for a weapon, anything that could help. The guard raised a foot to stop him into the ground._

 _And swore as a large rock shattered what was left of his jaw. Nicky's paws found a stalagmite, broken off by the gunfire, and he jerked forward, muscles screaming, bringing the stalagmite down, then up again. The point swiped at the guard's head and Nicky felt the jolt of stone against bone. The guard reeled back. Nicky took another step forward, this time swinnging the stalagmite like a cricket bat, hitting him with incredible force across the shoulders and neck. He didn't even cry out, he just flew backward and was still._

 _Nicky realised he was panting. He turned and saw Andrea standing there, paw still poised as if to throw something._

 _"Come on," he said, gesturing to the waiting tunnel, "let's get out of here. I don't know about you, but I've had enough of high society for one night."_

 **...**

 **THE NOX**

Once Judy got to the right building, sneaking past the two guards had been relatively painless. She now stood before a thick set of mahogany doors, newly installed where the entrance window had once been. Nick was within reach, Judy felt it. She could get the information she needed from this vixen, and all it would take is a nice, polite conversation...

Judy opened the door and walked into the barrel of a gun.

She was a statue, with fear and frustration and anger churning molten in her gut.

"What do you want?" Hissed the arctic fox holding the gun, shoving it so close to Judy's nose she went cross-eyed. She tried to relax. She'd honed her skills as a negotiator for years.

"Eep." she squeaked. Dammit.

"You have three seconds. Three... Two..."

Judy gasped as the synapses fired, pulling a memory from a dusty corner, a lesson Nick had taught her in a half drunk stupor years ago.

" Puh- Peace! " She almost screamed, stumbling over the words in her rush to release them, " Peace in the name of Saint Marion! "

The vixen froze solid, eyes flashing.

" ...And what do you know about Saint Marion? "

Judy's bones had liquified, but she searched for the rest.

 _The ancient tongues were private and sacred. Nick had broken an unspoken law by teaching her even a line of Vulpine, wasted or no, and the realisation of what he'd done scared him out of his fur._

" She's saint of compassion and motherly strength, from the old days when foxes were treated as equals. You worship her. Once invoked by an eligible member of the Family, her protection cannot be broken. "

 _He'd cornered her the next day at work, gushing apologies and curses and prophecies of doom until she'd silenced him with some Lapine._

The vixen's face relaxed into something tiptoeing neutral and freindly," Talk. " she said. Judy felt warm relief bloom in her chest, and she started talking as quickly as possible, so as to not give her an opportunity to interupt with the gun.

"I'm here about Nicholas Wilde." Judy took in the room, bigger than the one she'd climbed into, with chintzy, moth-eaten furniture suspended upside down from above. There was a large sash window at the back, and through it Judy could just make out the lip of the overhang. A possible escape route? "He's been kidnapped by people we believe are connected to your shared... history. I need your help to -"

" Why do you care? " The vixen interrupted, her friendly half-smile never moving. Her eyes were the deepest blue Judy had ever seen, like iced over oceans.

"What?"

" Why do you care what happens to Nicky? " Judy was stunned. What kind of a question was that?

"He's-"

" No. " she interrupted again. She gave the gun a casual little flick; possibly the subtlest death threat Judy had ever seen. The smile remained fixed in place. " You were given a gift, so use it. "

Judy felt the resentment began to simmer in her stomach. This fox was making her jump over as many hurdles as possible, though God only knew why.

 _They had thier own unwritten laws. Without agreeing to it, without even discussing it, they began to teach each other. There were no set lessons or topics; words were scattered about thier everyday lives like a jigsaw waiting to be assembled. Piece by piece the language came together, until eventually they'd have bilingual conversations, he in Lapine and she in Vulpine, anywhere they could. Her apartment, his apartment, the patrol car. Never anywhere public, though; to do that was to court scandal, and the whispers already followed thier friendship like swarms of hornets._

 _She loved Vulpine; all its quirks and inflections and the rhythm of speech. It was exotic, and freeing in a way her native tongue, so deeply ingrained into her childhood, could never be._

" He's my... partner. " The vixen noticed the pause, Judy could feel it, though nothing was escaping the mask she wore.

" If the police wanted to help Nicky they would've sent a real cop, not the poster child for world peace. Besides he's a criminal and a scumbag." Judy felt anger rise like bile at the back of her throat, and her foot began to jackhammer on the floor. Who was this mammal, to judge her fox like that? " Though I suppose it's not entirely his fault. " The vixen continued, and fixed Judy with a penetrating stare so like Nick's it threw her off completely. " Like father like son, right? " _What the heck was that supposed to mean?_ Confusion took hold of her face. The fox smiled like she'd been waiting for it, and Judy realised she'd just failed some kind of test.

She'd thought she knew hustlers because she knew Nick, but this vixen was in a league of her own. Nick strutted like a peacock with his sparky words and gleaming charm - you were so distracted by the show you never realised you were being played. This one though, she was different, subtler, like pawsteps muffled by snow. You didn't know what was happening until she was behind you with a knife to your throat. " Better question; why should I care? "

" I can offer you protection- "

" I wouldn't be here if I trusted police protection. " She rested her head on her paw, completely at ease now. The smile gracing her lips was real this time, like a sprinkling of fresh snow.

" You were his... lover. " The word stuck in Judy's throat like a shard of glass. She hadn't realised how difficult this would be.

The fox snorted, combing her claws through her tail. " Ha! You need to check your sources. " The shadow of an emotion darkened her face. Her claws stilled. " I wasn't his lover, I was his agony aunt. "

" But you dated? " It came out wrong; small and curious and careful.

" We didn't go on dates, we had therapy sessions. You're going to have to try harder than that, bunny. " The friendly mask had never even existed; cold indifference radiated off her in waves. But Judy smiled, because she thought she might just have her.

" Do you know what? It doesn't matter. This isn't an issue of personal gain, it's about repaying your debts. " Judy had spent three years learning fox body language. Nick was famously shitty at putting emotion into words, but she often found his body trying to tell her things he couldn't say aloud.

" What makes you think I owe him anything? " Her expression was immaculate, but her left ear flicked as if to say, _I'm listening._

" Because I've known Nick Wilde for a long time. Likes to keep his paws clean, but he has an annoying habit of sticking his nose in the people he cares about's business, which usually ends in him saving thier lives. You're telling me that didn't happen to you? "

" As I've said, the Nicky I knew was a con artist and a scumbag. What makes you think he messed around like that when we were together? " She was trying to put her off again, but Judy wouldn't be stopped.

" I have faith there was enough of my Nick in the fox you knew to make him a good person. It's pretty difficult for him not to be. "

The fox stared at her like she was a bizzarely enthralling Zoo animal.

That's a lot of faith to put in one mammal, Rabbit. "

Judy smiled softly. _See? I can play too._ " Depends on the one mammal. "

" What if I've already squared these hypothetical debts? What if I lie to you? We foxes aren't exactly trustworthy. "

" You have nothing to gain by his death. " Judy pointed out, " You'll be in no more danger than you are now. All you'll be doing is losing a friend at the ZPD. " The vixen wanted to be persuaded, Judy knew it. Otherwise she'd have a bullet in her skull." I guess I'll have to have a little faith in you too. "

The fox gave her that same look again, like she was a horrifying car crash waiting to happen. Then she sighed as if she couldn't quite believe what she was doing.

"The guys who have him are Finnley Hunter and Bennidict Peaterson, the other half of the crew Nicky and I ran with back in the day. They're dangerous, but not exactly bright, and creatures of habit. We used to have bolt holes all over the city. One in Tundra Town, one in Sahara Square and one in the Canal District." She scribbled three adresses on a scrap of paper that had come from nowhere. "Chances are they're holed up in one of those, but deciding which one is on you."

Judy frowned. How was she meant to - Then she remembered the dirt. The thick, gloopy mud the rookie had found at the square where Nick was taken. No way that had come from dry, dusty Sahara Square or cold, hard Tundra Town...

Jackpot. Gold at the end of the rainbow. She knew where he was!

"Thank y-"

BOOM

The door was smashed back and two guards came charging in, guns already coming round. But Judy was already gone, flying out of the back window and onto the overhang.

Gunfire crackled in her wake.

 **...**

 _ **SAHARA SQUARE**_

 _After finding Finn and Benny crouching at the other end of the escape tunnel, nary a scratch on them, the group had managed to sneak across town without further incident. Nicky figured Fate must've grown tired of kicking him while he was down._

 _Finn's boss, the lion, had been waiting for them. He'd introduced himself as one Richard Pryde and bored Nicky senseless with reams of compliments and congratulatiions. Afterward Nicky had followed Pryde into his office and explained things to him. Pryde had taken Nicky's blow by blow runthrough of Finn's many mistakes in silence, his eyes twinkling like amber fireflies, his mouth curled slightly upwards as if he found the whole thing rather amusing._

 _"I'll do the job if you want me to, that's fine." Nicky finished._ (What the hell have you been smoking? It's the exact opposite of fine! You keep this up and you'll be dead in a week!) _"But you need to deal with the serious management problems, and I don't even know what we went to all that trouble for."_

 _"Finnley didn't tell you?" Pryde seemed genuinely surprised, "no wonder you're so aggrivated. Here."_

 _He passed over a thick red ledger with dozens of dog-eared photos sticking out of the edges. Nicky took it, puzzled. Did it contain financial details on the club's clients? The leather spine creaked as he opened the book, and for a few seconds all that could be heard was the rustle of pages. Finally, Nicky looked up. Words bubbled up in his throat, but he couldn't find a place to start, so they congealed and choked him into silence. Pryde nodded gravely._

 _"Yes. I understand you took advantage of the manager's... unnatural desires to steal from him tonight. Poetic justice." he chuckled, "You see, Wilde, the club you visited tonight is run by prey, and staffed by a mixture of predators and birds. The predators in particular are subjected to terrible indecencies. The management protest that everything is consensual, and so the police turn a blind eye, but I think you and I know the truth, my boy." Nicky glanced back down at the photographs wadded inside the ledger and winced; they made what he'd seen on the stage earlier look like a kiddies' pantomime."Pedophilia." Pryde spat. Nicky tried to swallow past the lump in his throat; he felt his eyes being drawn downwards again and snapped the book shut before his soul was stained any further. "However," Pryde continued, "You're right about Finnley's handling of the operation." He grimaced, "This isn't the first time he's done a botch job." He paused, claws tap-tap-tapping on his desk, then smiled. "Wilde, how would you like to be operational commander for your next assignment?"_

 _"Me?" Nicky asked, taken aback._

 _"Certianly. You aquitted yourself admirably, salvaging Andrea's part of the plan and later fighting off two armed guards. And you were the only one to notice the cameras."_

 _"Well-" Nicky's voice hardened, "Are you sure you want the son of a worthless scumbag running your hiests?"_

 _Pryde sighed wearily and placed a paw on Nicky's shoulder._

 _"I'm not going to appologise for what I said about Robert. But the way I see it, the sins of the father are not the sins of the son. You've already proven yourself braver and more dedicated than he ever was. You are helping our kind, you are fighting for something greater. He was only ever out for himself."_

 _Nicky thought for a second. He thought about Dad's lies, his stupid, insignifigant death and the pointless funeral that had followed. He remembered his mother looking into his own eyes and seeing so much of his father -_

 _"I'm in." he said, and left the room hurriedly._ (Asshole. I'm not sure what's going to kill you first; Finn's stupidity or yours...)

 _It was time to go home. His teeth clenched at the thought of dragging his broken carcass of a body all the way back to Savannah Central. it would be at least 4 am before he even got in. He turned and almost walked into Andrea, who artfully sidestepped him._

 _"So you talk to him?" she asked. The blood speckled below her bandaged forehead looked like winter roses._

 _"Yep. I'm in charge next time, so it's pretty much guaranteed to be the crime of the century." He tried a charming smile, but it bounced right off her._

 _"God help us all." His smile became a little harder to hold, but then her face softened just a fraction, like rock soft instead of steel. "Or not. You were actually capable out there."_

 _Nicky figured that was the closest he was going to get to a compliment. "Yeah. I need to get back into practice though." A memory flashed through his head, soft lips and the taste of mint; his ears burned. "I meant hustling! Not the other thing. The thing you and I - which is to say -" he stuttered to a halt, " uggh, how red is my face?"_

 _"Crimson." She didn't even twitch. Guess he really was that obvious; so much for the sly hustler._

 _"Heh. Yeah, well. G'night." He turned to go._

 _"Hey, Red?"_

 _"Yeah?" He clamped down on his bounding heart._

 _"You saved my life." she said._

 _"Yeah."_

 _"You could've died."_

 _"Yeah."_ (Wow. You're a veritable cornucopia of conversation tonight.)

 _"It was incredibly stupid."_

 _"Is think the words you're looking for are 'thank' and 'you'." He muttered. Andrea took a step forward._

 _"Who taught you to fight like that?" She asked. Nicky took a step back, warnings screaming in his ears as years of built up defenses tried to shut him down._

 _"...My Dad."_

 _Nicky braced himself for the empty apologies and cloying sentiments; his barricades were fixed in place now, but it was already too late. He'd let her see, he'd let her see..._

 _"Right." Andrea nodded. And that was it. Nicky gave her three full seconds to pounce, but she never did. Those gorgeous, cold, glittering eyes never moved from his face._

 _"So..." He ventured, "now I've told you something incredibly personal about myself, how about you return the favour?"_

 _"You're persistent in the face of adversity, I'll give you that." She almost smiled, and something warm inflated in his chest._

 _"Funny, that's not what people normally say."_

 _"What do they normally say?" She asked, folding her arms._

 _"Fuck off." he grinned. She glanced away with an exasperated huff._

 _"Well, it is just asking for trouble, so you're still a complete idiot."_

 _"Aah, that's more like it."_

 _"You're going to get yourself killed if you don't learn to control yourself. I saw how you were eyeballing that beaver." Nicky winced._ (Yep. May as well have sung a love song.) _In that case, he didn't really have anything to lose. Nicky took a deep, fortifying breath and ripped his walls aside._

 _"Well then, maybe I need a teacher." The suggestion hung in the air. She just looked at him, head tilted to the left. He tried a different angle."Y'know, you're going to get yourself killed if you don't learn how to fight." Dead silence._ (That, my friend, is what we in the business call a 'No'.) _"Never mind, stupid idea. See'ya." He started for the door._

 _"Hey Red."_

 _Nicky turned. Suddenly all he wanted was his bed. He'd wake up in the morning numb and unfeeling again, and it would be like this had never happened._

 _"I know you can't get enough of me, but people will start to talk if you don't let me go home."_

 _She smiled. Like actually, really smiled, and it birthed a swarm of butterflies in his stomach._

 _"I don't have parents. I was raised in an orphanage."_

(And that is what we call a 'Yes'.)

 **...**

 **THE NOX**

It seemed Judy spent most of her life running from things.

She heard the clatter of machine gun fire and roof tiles disintegrated centimetres behind her feet. The overhang ended and she launched herself at the next building, paws flailing wildly. There was a bone-jarring colision and then she was shimmying along the side of the building, paw over paw. She felt a spray of bullets pass close by and the wall above shattered, showering her with dust.

With a throaty yell one of the guards, a hyena, launched himself after her, catching the corner of the building and clinging on like a kit to his mother. The building groaned as it took the extra wieght; Judy felt it tilt like a sinking ship and she began to climb in earnest.

There was an explosion of splinters and the building's left side sheared away like paper. Judy leapt for her life. The wind roared like the crowd on fight night and she tumbled through the window of the final building, turning back to see the wreckage behind curve away into the abyss. And the hyena flying at her face.

Judy shrieked and sprang upward, grabbing the pipes hanging from the roof. The hyena cannonballed through the open window and continued straight through the paper-thin floor. He screamed as he dropped away into the hungry dark.

Judy gasped for breath. The other guard couldn't get to her, and couldn't see her to shoot. She was sa-

Something moved.

As slowly as possible, Judy looked up. And there it was, hanging above her. The spider, now clinging to her paw and wrist. She swallowed. Before, she'd thought this was a tarantuala, but this was worse. Much worse. It was very black with an obscene, swollen body, like a fruit about to burst. Judy could see the red hourglass marking on its abdomen. A black widow, _Latrodectus curacaviensis_ , possibly the deadliest spider in the world. Judy's shoulders were begining to complain about hanging for too long, but she didn't dare adjust herself, lest the spider strike.

If it decided to bite down on the flesh literally a centimetre from its head, it's hollow fangs would inject her with a deadly neurotoxin. She'd feel nothing at first. Then there would be pain, swelling, convulsions and death. There was no question about that; Judy was far too small to have any chance of surviving this. The spider seemed to have settled, legs stroking the underside of her wrist, as if fascinated by the pulse it found there. Judy couldn't breathe. She couldn't reach out and push the hideous thing away, she'd be dead for sure. If she stayed here her shaking muscles would spook it anyway.

Judy looked down. The buildings were so small she could've covered them with a thumb.

She let go of the pipe.

Gunfire exploded from behind as the remaining guard made a last, desperate attempt to silence her. Judy expected to feel the rake of bullets across her shoulders, but she was lucky; most of them went wide, and the one on target blew the black widow to pieces an inch from her face.

Judy was in freefall.

She tucked herself in as she dived, angling towards the vine-covered tree trunk. The wind was attempting to tear her ears off, but Judy blocked it out, snagging a vine as she fell. For a second it caught, but then it tore. The jolt was still enough to near rip her arms from their sockets, but the ground was racing up to meet her.

Judy swung wide, wrapping her limbs round the vine, arcing around the tree and back down to the tower around its base. The toybox world below tilted crazily. She saw the window rushing forward and braced herself just in time-

 _Smash._

Judy tumbled into the apartment in a shower of broken glass, the impact driving the breath from her body. She twisted,dart gun out, bracing her shoulder against the wall, eyes wild and darting.

A family of terrified moose stared back at her, eyes wide as saucers.

She let the gun drop like a dead rat and slumped over, desperately sucking in air. She thought she might've dislocated her shoulder in the fall and her ears were ringing like church bells. Painfully, she picked herself up and made for the stairwell.

A nice, polite conversation.

Yeah right.

 **...**

 **THE CANAL DISTRICT**

After the emotional warzone his day had descended into, Nick didn't think it could get any worse. Then Finn withdrew a handgun from his pocket, and Nick decided he was really sick of being wrong. Finn pressed the weapon against her forehead, and Viola Wilde froze as if petrified.

"I'm going to count to ten." Finn said calmly, "Tell me where it is, or she dies. One."

Nick's heart tried to eject itself up his throat. "What?! You know I don't have it now!"

"Doesn't mean you don't know where it is. Two." Finn pressed harder with the gun, and tears began to seep from his mother's tightly shut eyes. Nick rattled his chains, but it was useless; they'd freed one of his paws so they could drown him easier, but his right paw was still cuffed to the chair, and Finn was just out of reach.

"I have nothing! Listen, I sold it into the black market, OK, I have no idea where it is!"

Nick felt like there was a noose tightening around his mind; thoughts came in fractured, desperate gasps and the animal fear was tearing his insides to ribbons.

"Three. You just gave us a needle in a haystack, Nicky." Finn chided, "Not doing yourself any favours. Four."

His claws scraped the metal chair as he clenched his fists. Nick forced himself to breathe, and turned the noose into a leash. He muzzled the fear. _You work for me. I will not be controlled by you._

"Fine! Fine, it's in the the Rainforest District, Tajunga and Third-"

Finn cut him off. "It's not in the Rainforest District. Five."

Nicky felt the leash snap; instantly the fear and the anger turned on him again, tearing and ripping.

"No!" He screamed. Her eyes were open and glassy now. Suddenly they weren't the eyes of his tormentor, they were just the eyes his mother. This was the vixen who'd raised him. "I just - listen, I'll find it for you, I swear. Just give me a couple of days-"

"Seven!" Finn brought the gun round and fired; the bullet buried itself a millimetre from Viola's foot. She was openly sobbing now.

Rage eclipsed every other emotion he felt and Nick flung himself forward. "I'm gonna kill you, I swear to God-" He roared, clawing uselessly at the air an inch away from Finn's face,the pawcuffs pulled taught. Finn's eyes flamed like bonfires.

"You don't think I'll do it?" He screamed, spittle flying from his muzzle. "To save my mother, you don't think I'll do it!?"

"You're dead, I..." Benny body slammed Nick from the side and wrestled him back to his seat. Nick fought and slashed at Benny's tool belt with his claws; nails and screws cascaded onto the floor. Benny pinned Nick down and rejausted his cuffs so both his paws were trapped again. Nick was breathing heavily. "Wait. Stop, please. Think for a second..."

"Eight." Finn said.

"Listen, I want what you want, OK? You need my help and want to give it, but if she dies you may as well kill me anyway." Nick tried his reasonable voice, the one he used to talk jumpers down from the ledge of the eighteenth storey, "Let's go at it together, huh? You and me, just like old times-"

Finn laughed and stroked Viola's ear with the gun. She'd stopped crying; it looked like she was mumbling a prayer.

"Old times! You must be remembering different times to me, Nicky-boy, 'cause I'd rather shoot you now than relive our 'old times'. Nine."

Nick bit his lip, and the pain helped distract himself from the feeling that his chest was caving in.

"No. Please. Think, Finn, please. You need to do the right thing here, you need to-" Finn brought the gun round. "No. Please. Me, take me instead please-"

"Ten." He stated. Nick stared, unable to look away.

A second passed. Finn lowered the gun."Shit, I guess you really don't know where it is." he muttered. He gave a wry half-smile, "Well, congratulations, Nicky; you just wasted our day."

Nick had forgotten how to breathe; it felt like his brain had been through a juicer. "That was _fake_?"

Finn shrugged as he reset the safety on the gun, "Well we had to check you were telling the truth."

"You son of a bitch!" Nick yelled. He wanted to laugh and cry and beat Finn with a baseball bat all at once. The adrenaline was crashing now and he felt exauhsted.

"Yes. yes I am." Finn grimaced. "Now if I were you I'd keep quiet, or I might reconsider keeping you alive." He walked over and shouldered the door open. Benny lumbered after him, calling over his shoulder;

"See ya, Nicky. It was fun catching up. We should do this again sometime."

The door swung shut behind him and they were alone again.

Just like that.

His mother stared ahead as if she'd seen a ghost. Perhaps it was her own, considering how close she'd been to dying. Nick felt he ought he ought to ask her if she was OK, but reconsidered. They were both a million miles from OK.

Then he noticed the ticking.

Fox ears are very keen. They may not have the strength or range of, say rabbit ears, because foxes were evolved to depend mostly on night vision, but they were enough. There, marching along at a steady pace right at the edge of his hearing, was a metallic ticking.

That's when a bunch of things started to dawn on him:

1\. There was no way Finn would want Nick going free, because Nick knew exactly what Finn was after.

2\. There was no way Finn would want to finish Nick off himself, because doing the deed in person was more likely to leave clues for the ZPD to find.

3\. Speaking of clues, this entire base was pretty much a treasure trove.

4\. Benny was a mechanical genius

From this he concluded a few things:

1\. That ticking noise sounds like a bomb

2\. There's a bomb about to blow us to smithereens

3\. Shit

 **A/N: So many appologies, so little time. I'm disgusted it took me three months to write this, but I do have a couple of excuses. Firstly, I only saw Zootopia for the first time 2 weeks ago, then my computer broke, then I had to go on a 4 week summer programme so I couldn't get to my computer (If anyone reading this is from the UK, trust me and say no to NCS), then I was in another country with NO SIGNAL so I couldn't access the document...**

 **Eventually I decided to combine two chapters (which is why this was so long) to try and make up for the wait.**

 **I did not invent the concept of Vulpine/Lapine and the ancient tongues. That credit goes to the AO3 fic Fluent, which is great so check it out.**

 **Andrea will turn up again at some point.**

 **And finally, as always I'd love to hear what you thought. Too much? Too little? Were the action sequences OK? This was my first try, so feedback please! I know some people found the flashbacks a little much, and I'm taking a break from them next chapter, but I'm really committed to them so sorry if that bothers you.**

 **Thanks so much for reading, and to my betas for thier feedback, please review!**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: OK, just thought I'd let you know I've changed the species of the tiger who found the dirt in chapter 3. I'm trying to edit that now, but my editing tools have f*cked up, so ths is the alternative. Have fun!**

 **THE CANAL DISTRICT**

The sun hung low on the horizon, as if not quite ready to leave the day behind. Its balmy fingers reached out to caress the hills one last time, making the wide river lacing their slopes shine like beaten gold. Dozens of large rafts cut tracks through the water as they made for the buildings along the riverbank after a long day of fishing, thier crews' minds turning to dinner and bed. Frying trout scented the air; dragonflies pinwheeled between water rushes.

The ground trembled ever so slightly. The water rushes shivered in unison, sending tiny ripples out across the water.

A fireball punched through four buildings on the river's edge. The rushes and dragonflies were consumed by a wave of flame rolling over the water. Screams rent the air, calls to loved ones, shouts for someone to _dial 911 now!_

But the police were already here; unseen by the frantic fisher-folk, a small ZPD cruiser pulled up on the western bank and a small, grey rabbit fell out of the driver's side. She stared for a second at the swirling flames. And then she began to cry.

 **...**

Judy screamed. She screamed and wailed until her nose ran like a child's. She dug her paws through the wet, glistening mud beneath her knees and rocked back and forth like a baby.

Mud, mud, mud, she should've noticed it sooner, mud - She raised a fist and punched the ground, driving her fist deep into the soft, yeilding surface, pushing deeper and deeper as if crushing the pain beneath the earth. Then she was screeching a kicking and beating, blinded by tears and the agony of being so close but so insurmountably far all at once.

Eventually Judy realised she wasn't crying anymore. She laid in the mud, in the dirt where she belonged, curled into the feotal position. Faint, gurgling moans mixed with the wail of approaching sirens. The taste of smoke burned at the back of her throat.

 _He's dead._

The realisation came like the aftershock of an earthquake. Her whole body quivered. And she felt a warm paw stroke her ears.

Judy couldn't find the strength look up. Bonnie sat there for a small time, lifting Judy's head onto her lap. Stu came over and settled beside them, taking Judy's paw. Niether of them said anything. Both knew there was nothing to say.

In time, Judy's breathing slowed and she lapsed into silence. As one, the Hopps family watched the sun descend, now a burning rim of orange crowning the horizon.

Finally the silence was broken. Bonnie leaned down to Judy's ear.

"Try." whispered her mother. Her father gave her paw a squeeze.

The sirens of the fire brigade sounded again, closer this time, and it seemed to kindle something deep in Judy's chest. She raised her head. Hope sparked in the sorrowful pit, and it danced and flickered as a candle would. By the time she'd struggled to her feet, it was crackling merrily in the dark. By the time she started running towards the assembling firephants, it was an inferno rivalling the one on the opposite shore.

 _Not yet. He's not dead yet._

 **...**

 **5 MINUTES AGO**

Nick was in deep shit.

That was his carefully considered opinion.

Deep shit.

 _tick-tick-tick_

A curse ecaped his lips as he fiddled with the nail he'd palmed off Benny when he'd lunged at Finn, his fingers made clumsy by fear. His one stroke of luck was in the pawcuffs themselves; they were an old, outdated model. No way he would've been able to pick standard issue ZPD cuffs with a nail, but with these things he might just have a chance...

The nail scraped around the edge of the keyhole.

 _tick-tick-tick_

Was it just him or had the ticking sped up? Nick was sweating now, he could feel it mixing with the blood running down his face.

The nail caught in the keyhole and slid home; Nick resisted the urge to push down immediately. Gently... He twisted slowly. The nail caught. As delicately as possible, he applied more pressure. It slipped out of place.

Nick's heart did a double backwards sommersault and dived into his stomach. He bit down a scream; his paws were shaking like he was ninety years old.

 _tick-tick-tick_

Across the room Viola looked on, staring at him like a gambler who'd bet her last dollar on a losing gambit.

Nick paused for a few seconds as he fought to control himself. He repositioned the nail, and slowly, delicately, tried again. The nail found the keyhole immediately this time. Nick forced himself to stop and relax.

It occured to him that this must be what life was like for sloths. If so, it was no wonder Flash was addicted to street racing; The speed must've been the only way he could stay sane.

 _tick-tick-tick_

The unseen timer was chipping its way into Nick's skull; he took another breath and twisted the nail. This time something gave. He stopped again. Sweat was dripping off his bowed snout and his eyes were tightly closed, jaw locked. He twisted again.

The cuffs clicked, and fell the to floor with a satisfying thud. Nick flew to his mother's side at once. Picking her cuffs was easier going with free paws, but they were slippery with sweat and the quiet death knoll of the ticking urged him to go faster-

 _tick-tick-tick_

With another click she was free and Nick was pulling her over to the door, the ticking stalking them across the room. Nick threw himself against the door, but it wouldn't budge. He swore and dropped to one knee, whipping out the nail again. It wouldn't work, he knew it: Old cuffs were one thing, but the lock on this door was thick and heavy-duty.

 _tick-tick-tick_

It was no good. Nick swore again and battered the door with everything he had. It remained shut. He ran back, seized his chair and sprinted away again, as if putting more distance between himself and the ticking would make a difference.

"What the hell are you doing, boy?" asked his mother.

Nick raised the chair above his head, preparing to swing it at the door.

"I'm sorry Ma, I can't pick this one. This is the end. I just want you to know-"

Viola siezed the door handle and pulled. It swung forwards smoothly. Nick stared dumbfounded. Then he was racing forwards, the chair clattering to the floor, replaced by his mother's paw as he pulled her along.

 _tick-tick-tick_

They were in a long corridor; a sliver of golden sky peeked through a wedge of open door. They were already halfway there, but to Nick it seemed a million miles away.

Behind them the ticking finally stopped.

Inside a vaccum packed compartment under the floor, a detonator sparked, igniting three kilograms of plastic explosive. The white hot reacton devoured the surrounding oxygen in a nanosecond and surged down the path of least resistance, which just happened to be after the two foxes running for thier lives.

Two metres... One metre...

A fist of flame punched through the open doorway. Nick felt the fire tear at his back and opened his mouth to scream the same instant they leapt for the water.

 **...**

A pall of smoke hung over the eastern shore. Judy leaned out over the prow of her rescue boat, willing it to go faster. The firephants squashed into the tiny craft waited in terse silence as the boat finally breached the veil. Judy winced. Smoke billowed from the burnt out shells of the buildings with an untempered fury; even as she watched, one structure collapsed in on itself in a whirlwind of sparks and ash.

The firephants around her shifted and stood, pulling on plastic trunk guards; the boats next to them diverged left and right, taking up positions from which they could better fight the flames. Judy's boat continued straight, its crew searching for survivors amongst the rubble floating in water stained black by soot. Far off in the background Judy could hear the deluge start up as the firephants tried to contain the blaze.

Other than that it was eerily quiet; just the low thrum of the engine and the whisper of smoke on the wind. In the unnatural twilight it cast, every lump of wood was a drifting body.

A shout came up from the starboard side, and Judy twisted over to look; two shapes, barely more than lumps of sodden, blackened fur, floated past, face down. Two of the firephants unfurled the nets stowed in the stores and cast them out; the bodies caught in the mesh and jerked towards them. Judy closed her eyes. They were both dead, she could already tell. Now it was just a matter of identifying the corpses.

 _Please not him, please not him..._

The bodies were hauled aboard and tossed to the deck like potato sacks. Judy pushed through the crush surrounding them, heart in her mouth.

 _Please, please..._

The first thing she saw was white fur, and she felt warm relief flood her. It wasn't Nick.

"Couple of llamas by the looks of 'em." grunted one of the firephants.

"Poor sods. What the hell were they doing out here?" another shook his head grimly, "Ah well. Let's get these two to shore, the coroner'll want them."

"What?" asked Judy. The assembled firephants stared at her blankly. "You can't go back! We haven't found anyone yet, we haven't found my partner yet -"

"Detective Hopps, we have a job to do." snapped the captain, "We can't drop everything because you're getting over-emotional. One of the other teams will pick him up, alive or de-"

"No!" Judy yelled, refusing to let him speak the word aloud, "We keep looking. Please, I - I need to find him."

The captain opened his mouth to argue, but was cut off by another shout close by. The crew turned in unison to see an old fishing skiff idling some thirty metres away, the two crocodiles on board waving frantically in thier direction. The captain sighed.

"OK boys, lets see what the snappers want. Probably nothing good, knowing them, but 'spose we'd better check if thier injured. Then," he turned to fix Judy with a stern look, "We get these stiffs to dry land like we're meant to."

There was general grumbling at this; obviously most of the firephants didn't think the snappers worth thier time, but the engine started up again nonetheless and soon they were astern with the fishing skiff.

"What d'you want?" the captain grunted at the older of the two crcodiles.

"We have fox!" he babbled excitedly, "Red fox for you, come out of fire!"

He blinked in suprise as a rabbit suddenly raced between his legs.

 _Please, please, please..._

And there he was. Huddled on the deck, coughing like a chainsmoker on his deathbed, with a blanket across his shoulders and half a dozen crocodiles crowded round him.

"Nick!" she shouted his name like a blessing, an announcement for everyone to get out of the way becauuse she needed to get to her fox _right now_. As Judy recalled, she leapt gracefully into her partner's arms. Nick told her later it was like being hit by an angry frieght train.

She felt him wrap his arms around her back and started crying again, because she could smell him now; under layers of smoke and dirt and ash, with her nose buried in the tuft just below his neck, and it sent shockwaves up her spine. She tried to say something, to ask if he was OK, but then he met her open mouth with his and she realised there were better things she could be doing with her lips. They broke apart, chests heaving. Judy could feel his heart beating in his chest, so fast it was almost level with hers for the first time in thier lives.

"I knew you'd find me." he whispered. She shivered.

"I didn't."

"No way, I heard you over the phone, you scared them shitless!" he leaned forward conspiratorially, "Remind me never to piss you off."

"Too late," she laughed, "Three years too late."

"Ahem." said a voice. Judy started; at Nick's side sat a vixen sliding gracefully into her mid-fifties. Judy immediately went on red alert. She'd just seen them- God, why was she always so _reckless_ \- "Nicholas, would you like to introduce your friend?"

Nick's ears flattened slightly, but he did as he was told.

"Ma, this is Judy Hopps. Carrots, this is my mother."

Judy leapt away from Nick as if burned, face flaming up in sympathy.

"Your moth- you- but- oh cheese and crackers, I'm - that is to say- I mean- well-"

"Very talkative, aren't you?" Viola commented conversationally; Nick looked like he was fighting back a laugh. Judy stumbled into silence, suddenly unsure of what to do with her paws. She settled for sticking out her right awkwardly.

"Detective Judy Hopps ma'am, pleasure to meet you."

"Yes dear, I know who you are." Viola said kindly, taking the proffered paw. Something unidentifiable flashed in her eyes. "Viola Wilde. What's my Nicholas done to deserve you?"

"Oh. Well, um," Judy stuttered, a little taken aback. This was not how she'd expected this day to go.

"Thanks Ma, but we've got work to do." Nick grunted, rising unsteadily to his feet. Judy looked back around; the firephants had taken the fishing crew onto thier boat, and the lot of them were in the middle of a scathing argument. "We should go make sure no-one gets punched." Nick continued, "Carrots, if you'd come with..." he trailed off, staring into the distance. Judy looked up at him.

"Hello? Earth to Wilde? Are you recieveing me, Wilde?"

"Barge!" Nick yelped, and spang for the bridge.

"What?" Judy asked, running after him.

"The barge, over there." Nick pointed; Judy's eyes followed his finger to a smallish barge sitting in the water about a hundred metres away.

Through the curtains of smoke Judy could just make out two figures on deck; one obviously a dog, the other no more than a featureless brown lump. Both were scanning debris floating past.

"Those are the guys who grabbed me." Nick yelled, gunning the engine. The skiff roared away, soaking several of the firephants and leaving the fishing crew swearing in Reptilian.

"Why would they return to the scene of the crime?" Judy shouted over the thunder of the engine.

"Beats me." said Nick, "but you don't know Finn like I do. Guy couldn't find his own tail with two paws and a map."

They were gaining on the barge now, but the sizemic rumbling of the skiff's engine had alerted their quarry. Nick swore as the barge pulled away and roared up the river. He pushed the engine harder, until it had nothing more to give.

They were skimming along the water now, at breakneck speed; ahead the barge curved away, edging round a long, thin island in the river's centre. Judy could see more amphibians diving in the shallower waters by its shore, nets poised for the last catch of the day.

The skiff was getting into dangerously shallow water now; Nick jerked the wheel and barely avioded a huge rock knifing out of the river. Judy ran to the skiff's prow, the spray whipping her ears back, drawing her dart gun and waiting for a target.

The barge swerved to avoid another rock; it was almost level now, they were neck and neck...

 _FOOM_

The skiff caught a rock full on its starboard side, the impact launching the hull up and sideways. Judy leapt clear just in time. The boat ploughed into the beach, skidding round onto its side and scattering the fisherfolk like grains of sand, its mast snapping like a twig.

She hit the water in a whirl of bubbles and liquid cold, pushing for the beach; Nick and Viola come up a few metres away and followed, Nick helping his mother along. Judy crawled out of the water and broke into a run; she might still be able to catch the barge...

But it was already gone, nothing but an oily speck on the horizon.

 _ **...**_

Eventually another rescue boat picked them up and took them back to shore, where the usual CSI investigation was in fulll swing. Viola was immediately swept off by several medics, but Nick only allowed himself a brief check-over before insisting on looking over the crime scene.

There were three layers of tape cordoning the area off from a throng of excitable civilians, two big white tents in the middle and one very peeved looking mallard duck in the centre, dictating orders to the scurrying CSIs. Judy's heart sank. Doctor Parish was the ZPD's _other_ coroner, as sharp and wicked as Candace was soft and gentle. Nick fixed on the Smile and sauntered over.

"Good evening Carol, you're looking radiant as always."

"Unless you're dead, leave me alone. I'm busy." A second passed before the duck raised her head from her clipboard and recognised them. A weary sigh escaped her."Ah, Wilde. Rabbit." she shot at Judy, managing not to look at her.

"Carol." Judy tried for a buttery smile.

"That's Doctor Parish to you." she snapped. The smile slipped off Judy's muzzle as Nick raised his paws in defence, stepping forward so he was between them.

"We just want to see the stiffs, Carol. Then we'll be out of your feathers."

Carol-that's-Doctor-Parish-to-you sighed again, and indicated for them to follow her into one of the white tents. The forensic photographer held the flap open for them before leaving for the other tent; he looked distinctly green.

The body was hidden under a white tarp, which Parish withdrew like a magician unvieling her signature trick. Judy turned away, but not before she'd got a sickening lungful of burnt flesh; her stomach rolled and she watched as Nick fight back something similar. It was one of the llamas they'd found in the river. The dead face gawping up at them was blistered red raw, the flesh and bone half melted by intense heat. Where fur should've been was grey powdery ash. Nick leaned in closer, holding his breath, brow furrowed in confusion.

"He looks like a llama." he promted. Parish nodded.

"That's right. Cause of death is fairly self explanitory, though he was helped along a bit by blunt force trauma, most likely from rubble -" she lifted up the llama's head to show them the back of his head had been caved in; when she withdrew, her medical gloves were dark and sticky - "As you can see from the waterlogged body fur, it found its way into the river at some point. I'll have to wait for the autopsy for confirmation, but that was most likely post mortem, at which point the rescue crew that found you retrived this body and its friend in the tent next door."

"The other guy's a llama too?" Nick asked. Parish nodded. "I know them." he turned to Judy, confusion clouding his expression, "They were part of the crew that nabbed me."

Judy's ears folded back. "Finn killed hs own people?" Nick's tail swished back and forth like an agitated snake.

"It doesn't seem like him. Finn's a dirtbag, but he's a loyal dog to his crew."

"He turned on you." Judy pointed out. Nick's ear flicked and she knew he wasn't buying it. But what other explination was there? Unless... "He came back." she said. Nick raised an enquiring eyebrow at her. "We saw him come back to look for something." She said excitedly, "Or _someone_." She watched his ears perk as he caught her meaning.

"He was coming back for them."

"Exactly!" Judy nodded, stepping closer.

"Which means he didn't want them dead..."

"...But if he didn't want them dead, he would've warned them about the bomb..."

"...Which means he didn't know about it!" Nick finished, eyes shinning. Parish coughed, and Judy suddenly realised they were close enough to share breaths. They jumped apart.

"So someone else is after Finn." she said, paw on her chin, hoping Parish couldn't see her burning cheeks through her fur. The heat was extinguished by another thought. She glanced at Nick and watched the enthusiasim drain out of his ears as he reached the same conclusion.

"Or someone else wants to kill me."

"Well, not that this isn't fascinating." interrupted Parish in a tone that told them it was the exact opposite, "But I have a crime scene to manage, and I'd appreciate it if you two weren't bungling around destroying all the evidence." She paused and fixed Judy with a beady eye, "We use very delicate, specialist equipment here and some people will just get in the way."

Judy followed Nick out of the tent, leaving the good doctor and her team to play with pieces of thier delicate, specialist equipment that were far too complicated for a poor dumb bunny to name (like cotton swabs). Once on the other side of tape, she paused and took a deep breath in, raising her face and letting the last embers of the sun stroke her face.

"You good?" Nick asked. She nodded.

"Yeah, its just... bodies." she shivered involantarily, the llama's melted face swimming before her eyes like a garish halloween mask, "You'd think I'd be used to them by now."

Nick smiled sadly, and looked at her with the air of an old man looking back upon the half-forgotten days of youth.

"Com'on, we need to find our parents." he grimaced, "and then we've got a date with good old Chief Beef."

 **...**

 **PRECINCT ONE**

"NIIIICK!" Clawhauser squealed, launching himself around his desk impossibly fast. Nick disappeared in the folds of a crushing hug.

"Mrrmph- hey, big guy. It's good to see you too." He winced "Watch the ribs, buddy. The ribs."

Clawhauser set Nick back down gasping and rubbing his sides, and returned to his seat, beaming like a kit in a candy store.

"And here's Judy and her parents and-" he let out a gasp so large it seemed to suck all the air from the room- "Oh. Em. Goodness. Nick, tell me this is _not_ your mom!"

Judy glanced at Viola and her parents to see how they were taking this; all three looked like they'd had a technicolour firework go off in thier faces. First contact with the force of nature that was Benjamin Clawhauser tended to provoke similar reactions in every mammal.

"Oh, by the way, Chief wants you in his office ASAP." Clawhauser took careful interest in a sprinkle lodged between two keys on his computer. Nick's tail curled in on itself.

Shit.

"We'll meet you guys back here when we're done." Judy promised,hoping she wasn't letting her concern show. She ran through the checklist in her head: Destruction of civilian property, endangerment of civilian lives, not to mention dropping the engagement bomb this morning... Bogo was going to rake them over the coals.

 **...**

Judy finished her report and sat, trying not to read into the silence. She had to keep reminding herself Bogo's office wasn't a courtroom and they weren't actually on trial, but the way the Chief was staring them down from the other side of his desk wasn't helping. His paw rested on a stack of reports and files. Judy spied McHorn's name on the topmost one.

"Far from perfect." He finally said, "Taking your parents along was typically reckless, Hopps, even if safety precautions were taken." Judy shrank in her skin. "But you got the officer home, against all odds, at great personal risk and effort. it's just a shame all of that was wasted on Wilde."

"I knew you missed me." Nick muttered. Bogo snorted and glared at him with eyes that clearly said _Office policy is the only thing stopping me squashing you like a bug._

"Other than that, I don't have anything to say that won't be covered in the report. You will obviously be reprimanded for taking civilians with you, which will probably mean remidal classes at the academy." he paused, "Frankly, Hopps, your cavelier attitude towards thier safety is a menace."

Guilt leaked onto Judy's face; now she was on the other side, looking back, the excuses she'd used to prop up bringing her parents along were falling like so many dominoes. Bogo wasn't going to let her forget this anytime soon. Niether was she.

"Yessir."

They got up and moved to leave, but the Chief got there first, blocking the door, solid as a brick wall.

"Now." he continued, "Hypothetically speaking, if your parents weren't the only aspect of your personal life you had managed to involve in this incident, I would also have to lecture you on the importance of discretion." he paused and glared between them. Judy felt Nick's confused ears rotate towards her for an instant, "Thankfully, as the _offical_ record states, you did _not_ hint at a semi-legal personal relationship that could damage the integrity and public face of this department in front of a large crowd." Nick's eyes were glued up front, but his ears were stil swiveled in Judy's direction, "If you had, I would feel obliged to warn you that, although the civilians present are unaware of the interspecies nature of said _hypothetical_ relationship, despite your superior officer's best efforts, the news is most likely going to slip out at some point." his eyebrows came down like a thunderbolt, "If we lived in some ridiculous alternate universe where this incident, and the relationship it may or may not have revealed, are not so hypothetical after all, I would also feel compelled to warn you two to brace yourselves. When this storm breaks, and it will, they are all going to come after you. The media, the politicians, the activists. Your life will be blown wide open for all to see. City Hall has no sympathy for anything that implies a strong stance on the mechanics of a multispecies society, especially the pred/prey divide, after Belweather attacked the issue with a machette." Judy felt something die inside. Bogo looked down at them, what might've been sympathy mellowing his eyes for the briefest of seconds. Then he snorted, and they were back at defcon one. "Now the both of you can get out of my sight. I've got to figure out what the hell I'm going to do with you and your relatives while they're still involved in an active major crimes case. You can wait outside while I think."

Judy kept her head down, walking to the bench outside Bogo's office like a mourner at a funeral. They sat with a respectable space between them. The lecture seemed to remind them who they were in pulic. People saw Fox aand Rabbit, professional partners, not Nick and Judy intimate lovers. People had to, or they'd never let them alone.

"I may have dropped the engagement bomb to get in on the case. In front of the entire precinct." The space between them stretched, cold and unyielding. Judy refused to look at him, to face what she already knew was there.

"Right."

"It was te fastest way of getting in." She said quickly.

"I know." She risked looking at him, and wished what she saw wouldn't shatter her insides the way it did. Nick looked fine. He was calm and cool and collected (read: tense, terrified and a complete mess). Judy knew in that moment there was nothing she could do for him. Not yet. Her reassurances would bounce off hs walls like so many rubber bullets.

"Who knows?" He smiled in that devilish, suggestive way of his and she realised he'd seen this coming. Maybe not today of all days, but he had been expecting it.

"McHorn definitely. Francine was there, Fangmyre and a few others."

Nick nodded, "McHorn's fine, obviously. So's Francine. Fang..."

"He's a tradditionalist?" Judy supposed it was stupid of her not to see warning signs, but then she was often willfully blind to the same predjudices Nick was so vgilant against.

He gave an elaborate shrug, "Not sure that's the right word, exactly. Just a proud predator, i think. You know wolves and thier alpha complexes." he looked her right in the eye then, and it wasn't quite as painful as it could've been. His claws clacked on the bench."It'll take a while, but he'll come round. Just promise me you'll never let him-"

"-see that he gets to me." Judy finished. Nick wasn't angry at her, she knew that. His anger moved past her, to the nameless, malignant thing that made all this nessecary. He didn't need to tell her: He didn't need to elaborate on the many, many ways this would go wrong. Not _could_ , but _would._ Bogo had pretty much spelt all that out, and even then he had just been putting a voice to thoughts that had been lurking in the dark corners of her mind since the moment she'd pinned the badge on Nick's chest almost three years ago.

The empty space between them became solid with the fear and disgust and judgement they knew was coming, and a sense of helplessness did a taunting dance in Judy's chest; instinctively she reached for the one thing she knew was real, and he took her paw greatfully in his own.

They'd always been living on borrowed time, in a way. Judy clutched at Nick's paw, bridging the gap between them, feeling the ground shrink beneath her feet.

...

After a day of suprise engagements, kung fu fighting daughters and exploding buildings, Stu didn't think Zootopia had any more suprises left. Then he'd met Benjamin Clawhauser, and lo and behold, the city still had another curveball to throw his way. On first sight Clawhauser, whom seemed so large to Stu he blotted out the rest of the world, had spawned visions of claws and teeth and blood in the back of his mind. When the Fox had disappeared in Clawhauser's arms, Stu had felt a genuine stab of pity for him.

Then Clawhauser had started talking, and talking, and good Lord, he just didn't _stop_. His terrifying skin had been peeled back and Stu had been bombarded with an explosion of enthusiasim that made Judy look like a depressive. God knows what his parents had been through bringing him up.

"Yes, Nick and Judy are just the most adorable thing, saw it coming way before they did, but then I _do_ have a nose for these things." the nose in question, smeared with sugar glazing, wiggled obligingly as its owner leaned forward conspiratorially, "I even drew up the official parework! Y'know the stuff we have to sign if we start non-professional relationships, on Nick's second day! But Bogo didn't like it when he found out. Told me I was being ridiculous, ordered me to put it all back." He sighed wistfully, "I supose it was for the best, considering the whole taboo thing, but still..."

"So you don't have a problem with the taboo either?" Stu asked incredulously.

"Oh no, it makes the whole thing so much more _exciting!_ A forbidden romace, Like Romeo and Juliet!" No wonder Judy had been ensared by the Fox, she was surrounded by lunatics! Clawhauser's eyes went wide as saucers, "Not that you guys want to kill each other or anything! I mean, that's ridiculous, I just... heh..." he peetered out. Bonnie shifted from foot to foot as if walking on hot coals, but the Vixen just smiled like this was all some elaborate joke.

If only.

"What I'm interested in is the strength of the relationship, not the whys and wherefores of species divisions." She rested a paw on Clawhauser's desk with another smile that looked like it hurt around the edges. "My Nicholas, may Marian watch over him, has a complicated history with women. Or maybe the problem was he never let things get complicated." Evidently information about the Fox's (likely sordid) love life was thin on the ground; Clawhauser was lapping up every word with wide-eyed wonder. "I don't doubt they're passionate, but Benjamin," the Vixen placed her paw over his, "Are they genuine? Is he?"

Clawhauser's head almost fell off from the enthusiasim of his nodding.

"Oh yes, absolutely! I mean, they kept it secret for a while, and they were really good at it. I say it's because what they have now isn't too different from what they had right from the begining." he turned to Bonnie and Stu, who found himself being pulled along by Clawhauser's irresistable enthusiasim, "There was just this really _deep_ freindship, y'know? Like, they'd sort of blurred that 'relationship' line already. Then, about two years back, they got sent on an undercover case to the Nox. They ended up getting pulled after two months."

...

 _Thunder and lightning growled and clawed at Precint One's windows, but to Judy it was all white noise. She and Nick were herded into a faceless, windowless waiting room by officers she barely recognised (who barely recognised her, going by the edgy, corner-of-the-eye looks they were giving her.) There was a row of cheap plastic seats bolted to the wall, which was good because she wasn't sure how much longer Nick could stay on his feet._

 _As if in answer, he collapsed to the floor, clutching his arm with that look on his face that made her think the knife was still there, still biting..._

 _The door was whisked open and a swarm of doctors began checking him over, but for an instant Judy was still on the streets and these things in sterile white were just another threat, another gang coming for her fox. Her grip on his jacket was so tight it tore as they took him away, and she was left with nothing but a scrap of dark fabric and her screams of his name echoing off the tiles._

 _Eventually she stopped hurling herself at the door and Clawhauser came in with a glass of water. The relief she felt at seeing his face, something so deeply rooted in her real life, swept over her like the tide smoothing out sand._

 _She gulped the water down, and for a time she allowed herself to be hypnotised by Benji's joyful chatter, and how weird and wrong the sparkling glass looked in her filthy paw, with it's dirt caked claws and the new scar curving over her thumb. She placed it on the floor, as far away as she could without getting up, grateful for the water but not sure if she could trust something so perfect and clean._

 _After a while Bogo came in and Clawhauser went back to his desk, leaving her a cotton candy smile that was almost as good as Nick's. Bogo was all business and her demands to see Nick this instant bounced off him like rubber bullets. He made her recount the whole thing, from the moment she'd realised they'd been made to now. She closed her eyes and tried not to feel it all again; the memories passed in a twisted mass of hard breaths and pounding feet and the final explosion of gunfire._

 _A lifetime and a half passed until Bogo was satiated, then he led her far too slowly down to the cells, where the doctors had set up an inpromtu clinic. Bogo told her she and Nick weren't to go to a public hospital yet, not until they'd been properly debriefed. She didn't really hear, she was too busy looking for a way through the cold iron bars. Nick spotted her and lurched upward like the living dead, reaching past the swearing medics as if to grab her paw through the iron._

 _Judy watched the doctors work on him for another few minutes, her knuckles white against the metal, until the door swung open and she was finally allowed back into his lap. The tip of her nose lightly rooted around through the cream coloured fur beneath his chin, almost crying in relief from the scent she found there, unmarred by sweat and fear and putrifying flesh._

 _Nick almost castrated Bogo when he found out she'd been made to go through debrief alone, but Clawhauser was back and making goo-goo eyes at them from the across the hall; they both agreed it wouldn't do to act in front of a wittness. They settled for curling around each other as tight as they possibly could, closing thier eyes and muttering secret things to each other in their new ancient tounges, until Bogo came again, his eyes dark with a nameless trouble._

 _The faced the debrief together this time. He didn't let go of her paw, and somehow she made it through alive._

 _..._

Clawhauser's voice wash hushed and wondorous, like the kits telling ghost stories over the bonfire back home. The smile on his face reminded Stu of something from his early days, but he'd be darned if he knew what it was.

"They were given a week of R&R, and when they came back it was like nothing had happened. But I _knew_. They wouldn't let go of each other for _hours._ Bogo almost fired Nick for unbecoming conduct with what he was doing to her ears..." he gave a squeal like the air being released from a balloon, "Do you know about the engagement? Tell me you know about the engagement," his face fell, "you have to know, if you don't know I've just dropped them in it _again_ after I kind of swore I wouldn't after the last _three times_ and oh my _gosh_..." The Vixen placed a reassuring paw back over his and smiled warmly.

"I didn't know they were getting married, but I am glad you've told me."

That was it? Bonnie gaped at the Vixen like she'd just done a backflip. Where was the explosion? The cursing, the demands for it to be called off, the threats and the insults? _Nothing?_

Clawhauser continued to gush avidly about _Judy this_ and _Nick that_ (clearly he had a lot of pent up gossip he was just itching to share) and Stu realised what that face reminded him of.

Aaron.

Aaron was the huge plushie rabbit he'd won Bonnie at the summer fair on thier first date, way back when. They'd been nothing more than kits and the plushie, a cotton-candy pink one with an adoring smile plastered over its muzzle, had become thier mascot. They'd named it Aaron as a joke, the name with two a's, the traditional name for a firstborn. Thier first kit.

Over the years so many things had changed, kits coming and growing and going far too fast for Stu's liking, but Aaron had stayed the same throughout it all, perched on the end of thier double bed back home, a symbol of the puppy love that had started everything. One of his eyes was missing now and his fur wasn't as cushy as it once was, but not even the combined forces of time, three hundred odd kits and a flood or two could touch that lovable smile. That smile had seen him through the happiest days of his life.

It was the same smile Clawhauser wore when he talked about Judy and Nick.

Chief Bogo coughed behind Stu and he almost jumped out of his skin. It was unnatural; a mammal of his size simply shouldn't be able to move as softly as a barn owl. The Chief looked down on them not unkindly, making an effort to filter his usual glare.

"Mr and Mrs Hopps. Mrs Wilde. May I have a word?"

...

It was the arrival of a medic that finally forced her to let go of his paw.

Judy realised with a jolt this was the same oscelot patrolmammal from the plaza earlier that day; the one who'd found the miracle dirt she'd so nearly overlooked. He barely acknowledged her as he set to work, handling Nick's various battle scars with the delicacy of fine china and making warm, comforting noises when he winced. Words bubbled up in her throat, but he was busy with Nick and for some reason disturbing him spelled certain doom in her head, so the words congealed in the back of her throat and choked her into silence.

After what seemed like an age of agonising silence, he finished. His eyes met hers, and a silent understanding flowed between them like an electric current.

 _Thank you._

"How is he?" she asked anxiously.

"Unfortunately, he's still Wilde." said the oscelot gravely. Judy covered her mouth with her paws.

"That's terrible." she breathed between her fingers.

"Ha ha." said Nick.

"Other than that, the biggest issue is his ear." the oscelot indicated the offending ear, torn and bloody, "we're going to have to do something about your tail too, Wilde, but for now just try not to move it." he dug around in his supply kit and produced a sterile rag and an antiseptic spray, "Detective Hopps, I want you to clean it up as best you can until one of us can get to him. We've still got a metric tonne of civies to deal with from the mess on the waterfront." Judy took the supplies and the oscelot bustled off, mind already on his next patient. Nick grinned slyly.

"You gonna take care of me now, nurse?"

"Hush." she said, covering the rag with antiseptic, "Doctor's orders."

They lapsed into silence, Judy carefully dabbing at his ear, cleaning away the grime and blood with delicate strokes. Nick's claws dug into the worn leather of the bench, hissing through his teeth.

"You're sure you're fine, too? I mean, no offence, but you kind of look like hell."

She snorted "Really? Have you seen yourself lately?"

"I'll have you know this fur is artfully singed." Nick proclaimed snootily, muzzle in the air. Judy yanked it back down so she could continue cleaning, and he caught her mid eye-roll with a suggestive smirk. "I thought you'd find it sexy."

"Yeah, I don't remember ordering extra crispy fox."

"You know I taste delicious." he whispered, leaning in close, and despite her best efforts she knew her ears were darkening from a slew of very... particular memories. The extra puff in his chest told her Nick knew exactly what was going on in her head.

Males...

The grin slipped off his face and suddenly he was her Nick again, not Slick the hustler, all searching eyes and that warm little quirk in the corner of his mouth that told her these words were real. "C'mon though, Carrots, you know what I was talking about. I know it's been a busy day, but what's been happening with your parents?"

She reapplied the antiseptic spray, giving herself a second to think. She briefly considered lying to protect him, but that wasn't how they worked. Fixing each other like they did only worked if they had all the pieces. He needed to know.

"I dont know, Nick. I should never have kept it from them. I thought I was protecting you, and I know that isn't an excuse, but..." She moved her paw back to his head, hiding the fear she knew was written all over her face."They're looking at me differently."

She hated how small and stupid it was, but in Bunnyburrow she'd grew up knowing the one thing that would never change was her family. No matter how crazy life got they were a constant, the eye at the heart of an ever-shifting malestrom. Through Gideon and High School and the Academy, they'd always _been there._ But now there was something alien in thier eyes when they looked at her and the fear that she'd forgotten, that she'd neglected and _assumed_ , was crawling up her throat.

Nick extracted his paw from the seat and brushed it against hers. Holding her hand was too risky with officers marching up and down the coridor, but after the day and the distance they'd just endured, the statement that he could (and would) if she needed him to was comforting enough.

"Of course they're looking at you differently; they're seeing you in your natural habitat for the first time." his lips quirked again. "And... Carrots, I don't think you realise just how weird you are."

"You'd be suprised." she said drily,

"Seriously, though." he reached up and stilled her paw in its cleaning, forcing her to meet his eyes. "You've got to understand it from thier point of view, seeing what their daughter's turned into. You're the dreamer who walks through nightmares, and somehow you survive that with your soul intact. You're a living, breathing miracle; they can see that in your eyes and the enormity of it terrifies them."

There was a brief moment of silence while Judy absorbed this.

"That was real poetic. Have you been practicing that?"

Nick smirked lazily and laid back against the headrest. "Yeah, I thought it up earlier. Practicing kept me focused during all the... y'know, torture. It felt a little rushed, did it come off rushed?"

"No," she whispered quietly, "No, I thought it was beautiful."

"You've turned me into such a sap." he sighed contentedly

He waited quietly while she finished her cleaning. "You remember that game you taught me, Facts and Fairytales?" She hummed in her chest, focusing on a bit of grit that was refusing to come quietly. "Well I can see a few now. Fact: You love your parents and they love you." she froze, and he took the opportunity to suck her in with his eyes again, "Fairytale: The Judy Hopps I know would never let anything as insignificant as a milennia old taboo get in between her and the people she loves."

"So what do I do?"

"Do what Judy Hopps always does. Try."

When she was finally satisfied Nick's ear wouldn't fall off from infection, Judy packed up the supplies and glanced around for the young oscelot. Probably long gone. Probably part of another Precinct. Judy felt a pang as she realised se'd never get to thank him properly.

Then her mother appeared, effectively derailing her train of thought. Bonnie actually acknowledged Nick with a small nod, and when she turned to her daughter her eyes were brimming with something Judy couldn't name.

"Could I have a word please, Honey?"

Judy glanced at Nick, who nodded encouragingly. She slid off the bench and followed Bonnie to the break room. Higgins was in the middle of making a frappaccino, but he made himself scarce when he caught the looks on the does' faces.

Bonnie turned to face her daughter with the air of a prosecutor about to make thier opening statement. Judy felt deja'vu jerk her behind the navel. Hadn't they done this dance already?

"We don't like it Judy. I'm not going to hide that from you."

Something began to stir in Judy's chest. She balled a fist and shoved it down. Behind her mother, she could see thier argument from this morning playing out like a shadowy mime show flitting across a stage.

She would not let that happen again.

Calm-

"Finding out your daughter is a predchaser is a scary thing to accept." Bonnie continued, and calm was blown out of the water.

" _Predchase_ \- Scary? Oh for crying out loud, Mom, Nick's harmless! I don't get why you're both so terrified of him!" Judy seethed.

She was a dragon with scales forged from anger and sadness and embarassment and there was molten fire in her belly - she was going to make her _listen_ , godammit, she was going to make her _understand_...

Then her mom slew the dragon with a single, simple sentance.

"We're afraid we're losing you."

Judy's scales disintergrated. The fire winked out. Because that scared her. That was ludicrous and frighteningly real all at once.

"Why - why would you..."

"It's not Nick we're worried about, Judy! It was a shock, it was insult to injury, but that's not what I care about! Lord knows your father is the one to watch when it comes to foxes. It's the lies Judy. Not what they hid but why you felt you needed to hide it -"

 _I was trying to protect you, I knew you wouldn't like it..._

"They're all part of this... abbys between us that's been widening since the day you left! In three years, how many times have you come to visit? Ten! Veronica's managed more than that and she lives in anoother country, for crying out loud!"

 _There's never enough time. Crime never sleeps..._

"And even when we do see you, you're so drained and distant - you remember last Easter you turned up at our door two hours late, hungover and smelling like fox?!"

 _They'd finally caught a serial killer, a terrible trial by fire of a first murder case. Spring was always the worst for crimes of passion, but it had an unfortunate knack for getting all the psychos to come crawling out of the woodwork too. It'd had been a gruelling case, lathered in gore, the kind that would weigh down her steps for the rest of time._

 _First she'd tried to drown the memories with a bottle, but the bottle had betrayed her and only made things worse. Nick found her sitting in an icy shower a little time later, still fully clothed, willing herself to dissolve down the drain so she could leave it all behind. They'd sat side by side for a little while, alone but for the constant patter of the water. Then she'd noticed he was shivering, and he'd insisted he would only dry himself if he dried her first. He'd taken her paw and guided her out from under the water. She'd woken up the next morning swaddled in a cacoon of bedclothes and fox, her head pounding like a base drum..._

"I know what that was now, obviously. But it kept me up at night, Judy, thinking about how you're pushed to the limit every single day, walking through nightmares as if they were real, speaking for the dead. You talked about atrocities like rape and murder so casually, so without thought. You weren't my oldest daughter, Judy, you were a battle-scared war veteran. And that's what scares me. This gulf between us that's going to take you away forever."

Judy's face was marooned in that hellish no-man's land between horror and guilt. Her nose twitched every few moments, eyes searching her mother's face. She wasn't even sure what she was looking for. Her jaw worked, trembling as she tried to filter what she needed to say into something understandable.

"Mom," she started, then stopped. She set her jaw and carried on as calmly as possible. "That's never going to happen. I swear to you." Her eyes threatened to revolt a let lose the tears that had been building in the background. "I-"

Her mother stepped forward and swept her into a crushing hug. Judy's composure burst like a dam. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, _I'm sorry_ -"

"Shhh bun-bun" her mother soothed, stroking her ears, "We know. We know."

Judy choked back a sob and withdrew, knuckling the tears out of her eyes and looking her mother in the eye.

"I can try harder. I will try harder." She gave a termulous, watery smile that reminded Bonnie of the four-year-old who insisted she was going to learn how to ride a bike no matter how many times she fell off, and _no_ she would _not_ accept stabalisers like everyone else because how would she _learn_ if she never had to pick herself back up?

"But, Mom, you're going to have to meet me half way here." Judy took Bonnie's paw in her own, "try to understand my life. Try to get to know Nick. I don't expect you to just magically approve of everything I do, but I need you to try and see things from my point of view. If you're going to reject Nick, and I really pray to God you won't, but if you do, make it because of him as a person and not him as a fox."

Bonnie smiled warmly, the same smile Judy remembered from childhood, the one that went with lakeside picnics and homemade cookies with the chocolate chips still melting.

"We'll have plenty of time for that while you're all down at the farm!"

Judy's brain hit the emergency brake.

"Come again?"

"Oh, didn't I say? We've agreed to house Nick and his mother while they're in wittness protection. The people who tried to blow them up are still out there."

"And you're _OK_ with that?"

"Chief Bogo assured us we'll have the best police protection possible. Stu didn't much like the idea but you've got nowhere else to go. Everyone agrees BunnyBurrow is the safest place for you, it's the last place they'll look for Nick."

"Huh." was all Judy could manage. It ocured to her Bonnie was getting exactly what she'd wanted right from the start of all this; Judy would be coming home with her to be protected and doted on. In another life the doe would've made a damn fine hustler.

Bonnie took her arm and steered her towards the lobby. Nick was already waiting for them, with a look on his face that clearly said _what the Hell is going on_ , standing next to her father, with a look on his that clearly answered _how the cheese should I know_. Judy wondered.

Was it too late to teach old rabbits new tricks?

 **A/N: Happier with the turnaround on this one. We'll be hwading to BunnyBurrow next toblet the characters breathe a little after all this plot. If you're interested I've started a companion fic that's basically world building for all the new stuff I'm adding. I'll be diving into religions, the new districts and Birds and reptiles. Chapter 1 (about the Nox) is up and the next will be about the Canal District and how reptiles fit into society.**

 **As always, reviews are my lifeblood, so keep 'em coming!**


	7. Chapter 7

**EDUCATING AN IDIOT LESSON 3**

[Sigh.]

So. I'm back. I know I said I wouldn't be, but the way I see it, this story ends two ways. Either decides to stop being smart and learn, in which case my being here is tactically advantageous, or everything I'm trying to teach goes down the drain, he ends up in the slammer and I walk away. In which case, this is all a massive waste of time. I'll burn that bridge when I come to it.

[Sigh.]

So, to recap, for the record, my name is Andrea. I'm trying to teach a colleague how to do his job properly. He's pretty good at it already to be honest, except for one thing. One big, glaring, flashing sign that reads 'ARREST ME NOW' kind of problem. His face.

I mean, it's not a bad face, as faces go. On a scale of 1 to 10. Not awful. Ugh, whatamidoing, start again.

His face would be fine, great even, if he could control the damn thing. It's like a puppy he refuses to leash. I need to teach him emotional control before he gets killed.

His name is Nicholas Wilde. We've had two sessions so far over a period of about a month, both followed by long periods of me swearing and trying not to break things. The guy just can't get it, his heart is glued to his sleeve. I mean he tries. He is very trying. And the puns. Oh God, the puns. If I ever kill myself, know it wasn't the noose that got me. It was the goddamn _puns._

Anyway, what follows is a transcript I made of the latest meeting. I'm not sure why I'm doing this. I don't like not knowing. It makes me feel all raw and exposed.

I suppose I'll just have to stick with him until I find out.

Oh, joy.

…

[I chose Mazzeo Park this time. 9pm, the bench by the Pride Rock monument. Partly because the crowd offers decent cover, partly because I want to see how Nicky reacts to the 'shifty nocturnal' stereotypes. The old donkey, Eddie Duncan, who owns the paper stand across the square, is also the most-stuck-in-his-ways speciesist I've ever had he displeasure of meeting.

And the 'couple on a date' image is good cover too.

I arrive an hour early and take up the usual position behind mom's favorite the big oak in the corner. He arrives about half an hour later, textbook casual. Sits himself down on the bench and slings his backpack next to him to save me space. Even brought himself something to read - Oh, you're shitting me. Spider-Mammal comics. Just when I thought he couldn't sink any lower. The Reynard fancies himself a damn superhero. I've got my work cut out for me.

He does a masterful job of scanning the crowd, if that's what he's doing. He could end up teaching me a thing or two. Did he spot me behind the tree? No way to really tell.

I walk across and sit next to him, and suddenly that casual calm was never there. He lights up like a Christmas tree. We need to work on emotional repression.]

Conversation transcript:

 **ME:** _Don't look at me._

 **DUMBASS:** _Easier said than done, Rae_ [Really?!]

 **ME:** _Well, you're going to have to learn_.

 **DUMBASS** _ **:**_ _Mmmhm. Saw you playing tree hugger over there, by the way_.

[Jumped up little shit.]

 **ME:** _That's not the point. I know you have eyes. I know you can read people. I'm here to make sure people can't read you._

[Old Eddie Duncan is already giving us those 'I know what you really are' looks from his stand.]

 **DUMBASS:** _Yeah, I understand. But we've been through this like, twice already, so can we skip the spinning rims this time?_

 **ME:** [Indicating] _What's in the bag?_

 **DUMBASS:** [Ears flattening] _What? Nothing!_

[He grabs at the backpack and stuffs it between his legs like I'll steal it. It makes a noise like a rain stick and I have my answer. Never figured him for a pill popper. That's a whole new level of stupid. Not wasting my time on this one if he's a junkie. Seen too many others waste away. Still, could I use the drug angle as leverage?]

 **ME:** _Alright, fine. You want to ride without stabilizers? Don't come complaining to me when you crash._

[I get up and cross the square to Eddie's paper stand. Nicky gets up and follows, doing a fair job of hiding the spring is his step. Think I might have scared him off being too openly enthusiastic about me after that beaver comment. Shame. Good. He's genuinely happy to be doing something instead of just practicing putting his mask on. Ignorance is bliss.

He falls into step beside me, and we take a wide, wandering path round the square to Eddie, who's already battening down the hatches in preparation for a fight.]

 **ME:** [Leaning my elbow on Eddie's counter, just to rile him up, and facing Nicky.] _You like Spider-Mammal comics, right? This'll have to do._

 **DUMBASS:** [I can see the cogs turning; he knows I have an angle, but like I've been telling him, knowing something's there is pointless if you don't know what it is.] _Yeah, OK._ [He turns to Eddie, who's looking him up and down like he's something nasty stuck to the underside of his shoe.] _You got any comic-books, pal?_

[Big mistake. Implying he's friendly with preds is the best way to get on Eddie's bad side. He draws himself up indignantly.]

 **EDDIE:** _No I don't have any goddamn comic books, and if I did I wouldn't sell them to the likes of you._

 **DUMBASS:** _The likes of me._ [His voice is dead calm, and his body's doing a decent impression of relaxed. It's almost perfect, except his ears. they're flat as paper. We'll need to work on that.]

 **EDDIE:** _Yeah. You and your kind. Filthy beasts. Y'know I've had this stall for twenty years? I was here when five of you bastards gang raped a jogger only thirty meters down the path there._

[He stabs a finger down the offending path. Nicky goes rigid as a board, but he doesn't crack. He takes a deep breath and freezes his mask in place. He's learning.

He glances my way, and I nod. He has to at least try to get through a full conversation, otherwise we're wasting time.

Honestly, I didn't expect Eddie to pull out the big guns so early, but the Mazzeo Park Five have always been a sore spot with him. When it happened, he refused to sell papers that questioned the Five's guilt. Has a personal vendetta against anyone protesting their innocence.]

 **EDDIE:** _You're all the same, you preds. You breed anarchy._

 **DUMBASS:** _Can I have my comic now?_ [He knows not to argue with someone this speciesist, trying to get out of it quickly. Good boy. His mask is proving pretty watertight.]

 **EDDIE** _ **:**_ _No! How dare you come here and press yourself on decent, hardworking folks._

 **DUMBASS:** _Like you._ [Nice and even. Quite impressive, really.]

 **EDDIE** _ **:**_ _Exactly. I'm surprised you can recognized that, with a mother like yours._

 **DUMBASS:** _My mother?_ [Shit. His mom's obviously a soft spot; now he's clinging to that mask by the tips of his fingers.]

 **EDDIE:** _Yeah. She a whore? I'm assuming she's a whore because you're a fox._

[Nicky breaks and his claws scrape deep furrows in Eddie's counter. Eddie brays and moves to hit him but I get there first. My claws dig into the groove between his hoof and his skin and I watch as his insides ice over. I don't even fight the satisfaction that gives me. Bastard. Whores? What the fuck does he know?]

 **ME:** _Pleasure not doing business with you. C'mon, Nicky._

[We retreat to the bench and leave Eddie to nurse his hoof. I shouldn't have hurt him. I shouldn't have called Nicky by name. Control. It's just... Bastard. Whores? What the fuck does he know?

Nicky looks at me like a puppy that's just been kicked. He's really good at it, the sympathy thing. Those eyes, too; warm and just the right hint of inviting.]

 **DUMBASS** _ **:**_ _So, teach. How'd I do?_

 **ME:** _Not awful. But you need to be prepared for when they kick it up to eleven like that. Always barricade your doors more than you have to._

 **DUMBASS:** _How?_

 **ME:** _Start with your breathing. Take a second to center yourself, then take everything one step at a time_. [Pause as he tries to steady himself. His claws slide back in with an audible chink.] _You have a connection to the Park Five?_

 **DUMBASS:** _My parents always used it as a cautionary tale. Even if you're innocent, never get involved in something that can make you look guilty._ [He trails off. Neither of us point out what we're doing now is exactly what his parents warned against.] _It always angered me, it always seemed so unfair. What about you? Any sob stories?_

 **ME:** _I don't bother with that stuff. Emotions make you sloppy_ [Like just now.] _Getting upset about something you can't change is illogical and inefficient. It can get you killed._ [He stares and it's like I can see right through him into his head. Robot. Freak. Embarrassment uncurls itself and crawls round my stomach on unsteady, unsure legs. Back to work.] _You do drama studies at school?_

 **DUMBASS:** [Surprised, but he rolls with it.] _For a little bit. I kind of got kicked out for calling out thier speciesism._

[Jesus. He tries to hide it, but this kid would jump in front of a train for the cause. I could use that blind idealism.]

 **ME:** _Well, just imagine everything's a huge act. You're playing a part._

 **DUMBASS:** _Yeah, but that'll be for next lesson._ [I consider pressing on anyway, but the guy's gone through a lot already, and I'm not at my best either. I don't want to push him away.] _After all that stress I'm really tired. I need a lullaby_

 **ME:** _A what?_

 **DUMBASS:** (Fluttering eyelashes) _Sing me a lullaby?_

 **ME:** _No._

 **DUMBASS:** _Oh come -_

 **ME:** _No_

 **DUMBASS:** _Plea-_

 **ME:** _I will walk away._

 **DUMBASS:** _Didn't your mom ever sing you lullabies when you were with her? You said you stayed until you were four. That's perfect lullaby age._

[Damn. I slip once and he commits it to memory. Mental note to be more guarded in the future. This one's even wilier than he looks. It'd be sweet if it wasn't so dangerous.]

 **ME:** _My mom was a Vixen_.

 **DUMBASS:** _I'd be worried if she wasn't._

 **ME:** _A professional Vixen._

[That's it. Compromised. Even after last time. How does this guy get to me?]

 **DUMBASS:** _Oh._

 **ME:** [Rising to go] _Class dismissed_.

 **DUMBASS:** [Looking down, at the paws clenched in his lap] _The pills are for my mom. Doc says she needs psychiatric help, but we can't afford that. I'm barely scraping ends meat with my job at BugaBurga._

[When Finnley found out about Slick Nick working at BugaBurga, he nearly busted a gut. I had to stop him going down there and taking pictures of Red in that stupid uniform with the mosquito hat. I told Finn it was to keep Nicky's head in the game and stop any more shit between them. But honestly, sometimes the guy looks like he'd scatter to the wind if you blew on him too hard. And you now what wolves are like with their huffing and puffing. I don't like the idea of him breaking.

Also, what is it with this guy and bearing his soul to me? I give him a quarter and he cleans out the bank. Useful thing to keep in mind for getting leverage later.]

 **DUMBASS:** [Looking up and smiling slightly - there must be a rebellious something on my face.] _Watch it, Andrea. You're scarily close to having an illogical, inefficient emotional response_.

 **ME:** _Shut it._

 **DUMBASS:** _Y'know, if you're having problems with controlling your emotions, there are few things I've learned that you could try..._

 **ME:** _Seriously._

 **DUMBASS:** [Grinning, but I don't think it's in a dickish way.] _Seriously! I mean, take your breathing. If you take a second to center, and then take everything one step at a time. Tell me, did you do drama at high school?_

 **ME:** _OK, enough._ [I sit back down.] _What was your take from our last job?_

 **DUMBASS:** _A... satisfied conscience?_

 **ME:** [I don't even bother to cover up the eye-roll] _Well, next time make sure you grab yourself something._

 **DUMBASS:** _I thought rule one was not to piss Pryde off._

 **ME:** _Pryde doesn't give shit what we do on the side so long as his job gets done._

 **DUMBASS** _ **:**_ _I thought the whole point of what we're doing is to fight predator prejudice, not encourage it._

 **ME:** [Go straight for the heart. Hit him where he lives.] _For your Mom. Class dismissed._

[I get up and walk away, not even trying to ditch him. It wouldn't work. He will, though. When he's motivated, that fox can work wonders. The key is getting at him. I might have to drop him a few more breadcrumbs if he's going to open up again. But I have to make sure I'm balanced first. At this rate he's doing more work on me than I am hm.]

...

 _One, two, three..._

 _Three, six, nine..._

The train jostled angrily on it's tracks, and Nick found himself marveling at how heavy a sleeper Judy was. The wheels squealed like a tortured pig, but she just snuffled slightly, adjusting her head on his shoulder. He supposed she'd learnt to grab what sleep she could, growing up on a farm where you rose earlier than the sun each morning.

He shuddered involuntarily at the thought. 4am mornings and hitting the hay before the sun had set. Hay. Oh God, what if he had to sleep in the barn? He was fairly sure good ol' Stuart wouldn't want him sleeping anywhere near his kits. Nick couldn't bring himself to blame him.

 _Seven, eight, nine..._

 _Twenty-one, twenty-four, twenty-seven..._

He glanced around the carriage for a distraction, and found himself caught in the crossfire of a dozen stares. Judy's parents and his own mother were giving him the same look; like he might accidently break the bunny slumped against his side.

In his head, the parade continued round and round. What was he really? What had he accomplished? Petty thievery. Swindling. Even his job, protecting the city and helping people, that had all come from her. He'd just been along for the ride, really. Stu and Bonnie had been going on at Judy for years to hunker down and start a warren, and in a single day Nick had blown their dreams to smithereens...

 _Eleven, twelve, thirteen..._

 _thirty-three, thirty-six, thirty-nine..._

New distraction. He needed something, anything. His paws acted on instinct and he lifted Judy into his lap. She mumbled drowsily and rubbed her cheek against his chest. Nick squeezed his eyes shut to hide himself from the redoubled intensity of the stares and tucked his snout under her ears, ignoring the little voice bemoaning the recklessness of it all in the corner of his mind.

 _You're a fox Nick. She's a rabbit. You'll never be able to give them grandkids, you might never even be able to marry her, for God's sake._

Something small and weak deep inside protested that this was Judy's choice, that it was her life and it was her wants that mattered. He squashed it firmly. She would want those things eventually, it was inevitable, and now their secrets had started slipping through their fingers, she might not want to stick around -

His paws tightened around her chest; he could feel the thrum of her heartbeat through her shirt. It was hard to believe that was it at rest. But that was Judy for you; always taking life at a million miles an hour. Three beats for every one of his, and now it felt like they were running away from him.

 _Seventeen, eighteen, nineteen..._

 _Fifty-one, fifty-four, fifty-seven..._

It was selfish. He should've known this was coming, but he'd let himself believe... Moving on wasn't an option for Nick. Judy was his do all and end all, he'd made that expressly clear; foxes mated for life. But he would let her go, if he had to. He wouldn't beg, he wouldn't beg, he wouldn't-

"You know you make a really crappy pillow when you're agitated." Judy mumbled. Nick's arms went slack in an instant. Not now, he couldn't have this conversation now...

For once he had no comeback, so he tried to smirk it off. She didn't even have to open her eyes to know it was fake.

"Stop being so nervous." She yawned, still feigning sleep. Nick scoffed.

"Me? Nervous? C'mon, Judes, be serious now."

Except it was serious. At first, hearing he was headed to the Judy's childhood home as her actual _fiancé_ had him ecstatic. It was the moment he'd stepped onto the train and it had occurred to him BunnyBurrow probably had no wifi things had started to pile up. Because he'd never been out of the city in his life. Because he would be a fox in a house floor to wall with young rabbits. Because Judy's parents were just two of them, two out of literally hundreds, and he knew they hadn't fully convinced them yet, either.

And let's not forget the Ghost of Christmas Past sitting across from him. His mother was clutching a small box of personal effects CSI had salvaged from the wreckage of Finn's safe house. She still hadn't said a word to him since the station.

"You're going to be fine. Really." One eye cracked open and she smiled without moving her lips. He couldn't tell her how much it helps.

"And what if I'm not?"

"Then we leave. Together. You're not getting rid of me that easily."

Too much. She always gave too much, but the primal, selfish part of his mind still purred in contentment.

"I really don't deserve you."

"Yes," she said firmly, "You do."

"It won't come to that." he whispered.

"No, it won't." she agreed, wriggling in his arms to get more comfortable, "it's not like anyone's going to scream and run."

...

The kits screamed and ran.

The drive to the farm, accompanied by one of Judy's older brothers, had been exquisitely awkward. The young buck had sized Nick up like a piece of meat, and insisted Judy sit up front with Mom and Dad, so he could better keep an eye on this devilish trespasser. Judy had been typically unaffected by the crushing tension, and chatted away happily about life on the farm, which was beginning to sound a lot like life in boot-camp.

Nick had tried to distract himself from the urge to run away by looking out of the window, and out of the window there was... nothing much. He hadn't seen 'nothing much' before. The land was so flat he could see for acres in either direction; rolling fields dotted with the shadows of scudding clouds, vast lakes of darkness in a desert of gold. The openness made his eyes itch for the cluttered vibrancy of the city, and again he regretted not taking one last look as the train departed.

By the time the truck ground to a halt, in a grassy yard about the size of a football pitch, and Nick emerged, blinking, in to the light, his injured tail felt stiff as a stale pretzel. The Hopps' family home sat long and low and sturdy up ahead, painted golden brown in the sunlight. It was every farmhouse from every movie Nick had ever seen - looking older than the hill it was built into.

Stu was rolling out the orders before their paws had touched the ground, eyes darting like a kit caught with his paw in the cookie jar.

"Bon, if you show our - guests - to their rooms, I want to go check up on Michael in the fields, see what I've missed while we've been gone. Judy, Nick, we need to talk in private as soon as... _What the cheese?"_

Nick followed Stu's gaze across the yard, and saw three of the smallest, fuzziest, cute- no, _most adorable_ , rabbits he'd ever seen crouching in the underbrush. As they watched, the little rabbits scurried up onto and zigzagged across the wide porch, using combat rolls, and crawling along on their forearms, commando style. All three appeared to have pillows strapped to their heads.

"Is that Octavian?" Judy asked, at Nick's elbow. Stu shrugged and Bonnie marched forwards, paws on her hips.

"Octavian Hopps! Susan! Terrance! Just what do you think you're doing?"

The kits froze. As one, they turned to face their mother, noses twitching madly. They caught sight of Nick and fled, squealing in terror.

 _"Fox! Fox!"_

Bonnie cast a sheepish glance back at her guests.

"They're probably just a scouting team." Judy's older brother said, materializing behind them. He tried to get between her and Nick, but she wasn't giving him an inch.

"Scouting team?" Nick asked. He'd been joking about the boot-camp thing.

"...Yeah." The buck found the courage to shoot him a dark look, like this was all his fault. "Things have gone a bit crazy these last couple of days."

He led them over a threshold worn down by the passage of a thousand paws, into the house and - holy _shit_. The entrance hall was big. Like, mansion-sized. Nick felt a stab, remembering the dingy shoebox Judy had been forced into in the city.

She'd always made out she'd had a modest upbringing, but maybe 'modest' had a different meaning here in bumpkin land. Not that there was any room to spare; rabbits were sprouting out of the walls. Nick tried to block out the jumps and stares and double takes, hunching down to make himself look like less of a threat.

Judy didn't seem to like things either, the way her ears were folding.

"What's up?"

"Nothing, it's just... there should be more of them. Where are all the little ones?"

Nick blinked a looked around. The floor was still two bunnies deep, but Judy was right. Aside from the three they'd seen outside, there was no-one under the age of sixteen in the house.

Word of their arrival proceeded them; they emerged into a gargantuan living area with bookcases and a ring of sagging couches, and were greeted by a middle-aged bunny, very much like Bonnie.

"Bon! Stuart! Thank the Lord, things are desperaaaaa-" she ground to a halt, staring at Nick and Viola with eyes the size of dinner plates. Nick moved to introduce himself, but Stu got there first.

"Prynthia, this is officer Nicholas Wilde. He's Judy's work colleague. He'll be staying with us for a while."

Judy made an affronted noise and opened her mouth to object, but Nick shot her a warning look. Because of course. Of course, this was the smart move. There was no way any of them would take the truth well, least of all this doe, wrapped in a dressing gown with her ears still in rollers.

It wasn't as bad as it could've been. Hugs were exchanged between the rabbits and the foxes were skirted around, but nobody else fled. Their eyes were still too wide, but no-one ran for the pitchforks. Eventually, normal conversation started up again and Stu left to inspect his precious crops.

Prynthia led the rest down to the bedrooms, deep underground. She made idle chit-chat with Bonnie (her older sister, it turned out), and Nick managed to convince himself the careful undercurrent to her words wasn't that noticeable.

"You remember that pillow fight between dorms six and three?" she asked.

"Yes." said Bonnie, "An argument about pillow forts versus blanket forts, or some such nonsense. I put a stop to it."

They descended a tight spiral staircase and set off through a maze of twisting tunnels. Right, left, right again. The floor sloped up and then dived down, before another flight of stairs, then the third door on the left... Nick prided himself on his sense of direction, but he was lost before they were halfway there.

"The fight sprang back up while you were gone." Prynthia continued, "And... escalated, I'm afraid. That's why all the extended family is arriving, to compensate for all the little ones being... _drafted_."

They turned onto a long straight.

"Oh dear. How bad is it?"

"I've never seen anything worse."

Her tone was deadly serious, and Nick was struggling not to laugh. They were talking about a pillow fight like it was world war three. He supposed they had to make the most of what little excitement they got-

\- here.

Nick blinked and rubbed his eyes. _Check again_ , his brain told them. _We are checking_ , his eyes insisted, _it's really there_. He turned to Judy, and the smug look she was giving him out of the corner of her eye.

"Welcome to my world." she grinned. Nick just gaped.

In the mouth of the tunnel ahead was another, smaller one, made of blankets and propped up with bamboo poles and broomsticks. Through its mouth, Nick could see it stretch away into the distance, all the way down the straight, maybe half a mile or more. And between here and there he could see brightly lit sleeping areas, storage sections and communal areas, and dozens of intersections opening up to places unknown.

'Blanket fort' didn't do the thing justice. Judy's little brothers and sisters had built a blanket _city_.

"And this is just one of them. Wait until you see what Octavian's done with the pillows. It's a good thing we're having a warm season; bedding has become a rare luxury."

Judy wolf whistled.

"Makes me wish I was six again."

Prynthia made a disapproving noise through pursed lips.

"Hmm. We'll have to go around to find rooms for our guests." To her credit, she only paused for the briefest second before leading them away.

They took a wide, looping path, occasionally having to stop and double back when they met new sections of fort, following Prynthia's mumbled curses about expansion. On the outskirts, stuffing and feathers coated the earthy floor like fresh snow. Empty pillow cases were scattered on top like spent shell casings.

They passed large dorm rooms, circular, with twelve bunk beds each, arranged like the dashes on a clockface, and here, at last, they found the young ones.

They peeked out of their doorways, watching the strange little group like the funeral procession of a stranger. It seemed that with each step, Nick caused a new ripple of nervousness, ears rustling like corn caught in the breeze. Judy waved, but only a few were brave enough to return the gesture. A torn pillow rolled across the floor, a tumbleweed through a silent ghost town.

Viola was packed off into a cozy looking room with a single bed, still clutching her box like it was her only child. Not him.

Then it was Nick's turn. His ears brushed the ceiling, and the bed looked more like a matchbox. He didn't know when, but at some point in their journey they must have come above ground again, because late afternoon sun was streaming in through a porthole window.

He turned to Bonnie.

"Thank you." it was genuine; any sane rabbit probably wouldn't have let him past the front door. It only took a moment for her to smile back, and that was genuine too.

Prynthia and Bonnie left to inspect the new civilization her kits had created, and discuss the best methods for stopping a war. Y'know, average mom stuff.

Judy closed the door and the rest of the world dropped off to nothing.

"You feeling good about yourself?" he smiled, "You almost looked tall compared to those munchkins."

But then she turned, and he saw no room for jokes on her face. She was fuming.

"They have the cheek - the audacity to... hide you? We just had a day long argument about why keeping secrets was a bad idea, and they just jump right back in!"

Nick shuffled forward, conscious of the low ceiling, and wrapped her in a hug as best he could. He could feel the indignation scrunched up in her face, pressed against his shirt, and knew she would submerge in it a little longer before she let him pull her free.

He tried anyway. He didn't like it when Judy was angry; it didn't feel like a natural place for her to be.

"You know dumping it all on them would cause a riot."

"But that still doesn't excuse, that's just, I don't even, _ugh_." she slumped against his chest. "Why can't the world just _make sense_ sometimes?"

He gave her that special smile, the one she could only bring out when she was being especially _Judy._

"And this is what makes you a good cop. You can see the world as it's meant to be, as it makes sense. And you know that, so you give everything and anything until everyone else knows it too."

"Is that a bad thing?"

She looked up at him as if expecting an answer, and Nick was reminded of just how young she was. Nine years his junior. It was weird to think of it like that, actually, because this was Judy Hopps. The most mature, sensible, well-adjusted person the Maiden had ever produced.

"Well." he considered, "it can get pretty annoying sometimes, when you refuse to just be normal." She tried to punch him in the gut and he caught her fist before it made contact. "but, that's what makes you such a force of nature. You just - need to wait for everyone else to catch up sometimes, that's all."

She sighed and rested her forehead against him again, allowing him to open her fingers like flower petals, and take her paw properly. So small. That too was strange; you'd think he would've noticed the size difference more when they were surrounded by officers as big as cars, but back in the city he'd learnt to accept her as roughly his height, because they were the only ones under five feet. Here though, surrounded by other rabbits...

He kissed her to quiet the noise. She huffed slightly against his muzzle, and it was as if she were sucking the tension from his body. But then she froze, an ear pricked and she pulled away. His ear quirked as she stalked over and tore the door open.

An entire crowd of Judy's siblings greeted them, their faces perfect masks of guilt.

"Beat it." Judy was better at snarling than him when she wanted to be, "You would not _believe_ the day I've had, and this time I really can arrest you."

She slammed the door on the pile up to get away, turning to face him.

"Sorry about that. Should've warned you, but here the walls literally have ears."

"Noted." He said, and tried to pick his ears up for her sake. Their time together was already so limited, he didn't want to think what this would do to them. So instead he asked, "That pillow... thing. Fight, war, whatever. That normal around here?"

She huffed again, but this time the twinkle had returned to her eyes.

"It comes and goes. One time, when I was eleven, the stalemate lasted for months."

"And which side were you on?"

"Pillows." she grinned and sank onto the too-small bed, "blankets are for wimps."

Nick got a sudden mental image of an eleven-year-old Judy, leading a squad of her siblings on surprise raids and stealth missions like a little general. Somehow it seemed appropriate. He considered asking if she'd ever worn a pillow-hat too, but decided he liked his arm without any bruises.

He tried to sit next to her, but the bed wasn't big enough for the both of them, so she shifted and crawled up onto his lap. They sat like that for as long as they dared, anchoring themselves in th feel of each other's fur, while they still could. Then real life called again, and Nick allowed Judy to lead him out of their little bubble for the grand tour.

...

The Hopps' family farm was a rabbit-run operation, built on generations of sweat and good soil. And, say what she would about old rabbits and their stuck-in-their-ways attitudes, Judy had to admit, expansion was one thing they'd never skimped out on.

The fields stretched on for miles; there was too much to see on foot, so Judy commandeered one of the electric buggies they used for getting lunches out to the workers in the fields, and gave Nick the whistle-stop tour. He looked so uncomfortable, wedged in the tiny passenger seat, that she worried he'd develop a hunchback by the end of their stay. But the look of wonder he gave absolutely everything he saw - from the water tower to their rusty old lawnmower - drove everything else from her head. Eventually she stopped commentating on the sights and just watched as his face cycled through the emotions.

"So? What do you think?"

"I think our garden has a lot of catching up to do."

She snorted, thinking of the collection of planter boxes sitting on their windowsill back home.

"This is the gold standard. We grow everything from corn to -"

"Carrots?" he suggested innocently.

"Corn to _radishes_ , all by paw."

His jaw dropped.

"All of it?" His eyes swept the land again with new appreciation; the fields were way less crowded than normal, but they still passed the odd cluster of older rabbits, heading back to the house now night had fallen.

"Yup."

"But... don't you have machines for this kind of thing?"

She gave him a pitying look, and had to remind herself that in his heart, wise, experienced police officer Nicholas Wilde was still just another city slicker allergic to manual labor.

"Machine run farms are barely more efficient, and you wouldn't believe the money dad saves using bodies instead." she brightened, "You should talk to him about it. His books, I mean. I bet you could shave a few dollars of his expenditure."

"Yeah. Because he'll really want a fox sniffing around his accounts." Nick smiled without humor.

"Maybe later, when we're settled." Judy suggested. The silence hung in the air for a few seconds, so she rushed on. "Anyway, if the kits didn't work on the fields they'd probably tear the house down. It's a good outlet for all that energy."

"Didn't seem to work too well, judging by downstairs."

"Oh, Dad likes to encourage that kind of thing. Stimulates our ability to build and work as a team. The only mammals better at fast building than rabbits are beavers, he says. Still drives Mom crazy though."

They'd reached the boundary line of the property and the potato fields. Aunt Prynthia wasn't kidding about the extended family helping out in this time of crisis: Even Great-Aunt Muriel was pitching in, brandishing a pair of sutures like a battle axe.

Unfortunately, Great-Aunt Muriel was half blind and half deaf. As they watched, she missed the hedge she was meant to be trimming and gave Aunt Gladis an unexpected haircut. Judy had to pull the buggy over, fearing she'd drive into a ditch for laughing, and Nick got to watch as several of the Uncles attempted to wrest the sutures from Muriel's paws, dodging and weaving as she swung herself around, trying to find them.

Eventually the sutures were rescued, Aunt Gladis was convinced the bald patch could easily be covered up by a hat, and Muriel was led away for a nice cup of tea and a sit down after all her hard work. Judy turned the cart around, and they were carried back to the house with the tide of relatives. A gale of whispers whipped up in Nick's wake, but to look at him you'd think he never even noticed it. Judy was tempted to rest her paw on his, just for a minute, but this afternoon's slip up in front of Doctor Parish and her interrogation of McHorn were still fresh in her mind. Not here.

Not yet anyway, but by the time she was done...

They parked up and picked their way through the crowd to the veranda at the back of the house, where a dozen long oak tables had been laid out so dinner could catch the last of the autumn sun. If the farm was all pristine rows and military precision, the garden was where the family let its hair down. Weeds sprouted from every corner, eagerly eating up the space so cruelly denied from them in the fields, hiding a hodge podge of ancient wellingtons and cracked flower pots.

Judy led Nick over to the head table where her parents sat, pointing out the experimental mini-plots of jalapenos, rice, and cacao beans, using the chatter to paper over the gaping silence that was somehow worse than the whispers.

Viola Wilde materialized further up the opposite bench, looking oh so out of place. Her fur was darker than Nick's, the color of aged wine, and she stood out like a single rose amongst the earthy browns and greys of Judy's family. Her knees scraped the edge of the table, but she didn't complain. Her eyes skipped from bunny to bunny, arguing, dueling with spoons, as if watching a memory forgotten long ago. Her muzzle jumped, not sure what to do.

Judy really didn't know what to think of Viola. No doubt Viola had some strong thoughts about her future daughter in law (lips, smoke, fox-fur, reckless) and that worried Judy. She glanced at Nick, but he was absorbed in the home-carved salt shaker on the table. He didn't look at his mother, in that too-accidental-to-be-real way she had yet to master. The silence grew deep enough to drown in.

Then Michael plopped down beside her, and it was like someone flicked a switch. The conversation roared back to life and suddenly they were just another pair of faces in the crowd.

"Sup, sis."

"Hi Michael. This is Nicholas Wilde, my - partner." Judy grit her teeth and tried not to choke on the word. "Nick, this my brother, Michael. He deals with all the technical jiggery pokery around the farm."

"Dragging the into them modern age, huh?" Nick looked impressed.

"Kicking and screaming. Which makes it sound more fun than it is." Michael sighed, actually shaking Nick's paw without flinching, "But, someone around here's gotta do it, and it's sure not gonna be little miss jiggery-pokery." Well, at least some things never changed. Good old Michael; sarcastic to the point of insult. He grinned at her, "By the way, you pillow pushers are toast."

"Oh really? Have you met Octavian Hopps? He will _decimate_ you."

"Octavian may be a teenage napoleon, but you should see what we've done with our structural support this year." Michael whipped off his glasses and started polishing them furiously, his eyes aglow with that electric gleam that she remembered from weekends taking the tractor engines apart when Dad wasn't looking, "All self-standing, inter-reliant like a spider's web. Plus the traps. The traps are always the best part."

"Sounds like you might be out of a job." Judy smirked "Michael was the blanket commander back when we served." she explained to Nick. Michael gave a melodramatic sigh and flopped forwards onto the table.

"Oh the great wheel of time turns on, good sister, crushing all we weary travelers beneath. Bet you five dollars we win."

"That would be against my moral code as police officer." Judy sniffed. Michael ran a despairing paw through his ears.

"Ten dollars?"

"Done."

Michael's ears perked.

"Really?" he glanced between her and Nick and back again, like they were a particularly complex bit of clockwork he was trying to reverse-engineer. "Huh."

A mouthwatering blend of smells wafted out of the back door (Judy watched Nick's nostrils flare as far as they could go), followed by her mother and twenty of the aunts, carrying enough food between them to sink a battleship. Soon the tables were groaning, and the kits began to emerge in platoons of four to six.

"Should we be worried about food fights?" Nick asked.

"Not anymore." Judy grinned, "Mom made it very clear when I was young that her dinner table was Switzerland, and if anyone broke the peace they would spending the night in the old barn with the ghosts."

Nick wolf whistled.

"Remind me not to piss her off either." he said. Judy grinned.

Octavian Hopps and his opponent, Nestor, stared each other down over cups of lemonade at the far end of the table, but the other kits were too busy squabbling over what was in this stew and who had the pepper to remember they were at war.

Their gasps at the sight of Nick and Viola were a thing of beauty Judy knew she shouldn't enjoy. Then the bidding war began.

"We call dibs on the fox!"

"You can't have a fox, that's like having a supervillain on your team!"

"We can too!"

Nick looked caught between bewilderment and gratification. Bonnie rapped her spoon on the table.

"That's enough!" she jabbed the spoon like a rapier "The fox is a guest in our home, and I will _not_ have you dragging the poor thing into your nonsense!"

Beside Judy, Michael surfaced from his potato and parsnip stew.

"Don't worry mom, Nick won't have time." he put on his 'evil mastermind' smile. "Judy's been gone to long, she needs to be broken in. Will your freakishly tall friend be joining us on the fields tomorrow?"

Judy winced; she really didn't need Nick pulling his walls up now.

He gazed at Michael for half a second, and something clicked. He gave a lazy smirk.

"I'd love to help out. As long as you're not afraid I'll step on you."

For once in her life Judy was so, so glad her brother was such an asshole to everyone. Nick was fluent in asshole, had been for years. It was like putting him on home turf. Michael grinned around another spoon of stew.

"You'll do fine. Right Dad?"

At the head of the table, Stu shifted in his seat.

"... Every paw counts." he managed, before switching to one of Judy's younger sisters, so he didn't have to think about it. "So, Nyssa, what'd the doctor say about the little ones?"

Judy choked on her stew. Nyssa's smirk ate Nick's best work for breakfast.

"Well-"

"Wait," Judy gasped. Nick moved to thump her on the back before remembering where they were and turning it into a stretch. "You're _pregnant_?!"

Nyssa sighed and rolled her eyes dramatically.

"Yes, Judith, some of us do have time in our busy schedule for things like family." She checked her blunt little claws, "And an active sex life."

Nick bit his lip and kept his eyes on his plate. His paw brushed Judy's knee and he reminded her he was sharp electric and heat, lithe muscle on the prowl and a hot tongue running over razor teeth. Judy sucked in a breath. At the head of the table Bonnie and Stu exchanged significant glances.

Nyssa didn't notice.

"It's all fine Dad, don't worry. He says I'm having twins."

" _Tins?!_ " Great Auntie Muriel squawked "Oh no, you'd better have that looked at dear."

Nyssa sighed heavily.

"Whatever you say, Auntie Muriel..."

Silence fell as everyone ate, partly thanks to full mouths, partly thanks to Nick. As a fox, he normally consumed about three times as much as your average bunny, but after a long day of kidnap and torture he'd worked up an appetite to rival a hippo. The kits watched, hypnotized, as bowl after bowl of Mom's best greens disappeared down his gullet. By the time he'd hit bowl five (slowing down, but not by much) the elders' mutterings about _greed_ and _waste_ fluttered like a storm of moths in the background.

Nick came up for air, careful to hide his teeth from his audience.

"This is amazing, Mrs Hopps.". He selected a smile from his arsenal. Not quite the full megawatt gleam, but still enough to let something warm and comforting settle in Judy's stomach that had nothing to do with food.

"Thank you, Mr Wilde. It's, uh, all to your liking?" Bonnie examined the ring of empty plates surrounding Nick. He'd been careful to leave more than enough for everyone else, but Judy couldn't help thinking of the fields just beyond the fence, and how much their space looked like a patch of dark, dead grain in drought. Nick turned up the wattage just a fraction.

"Definitely. And call me Nick, please." He wiped his muzzle with a napkin and turned a playful little smirk on Judy. "Actually, it makes me wonder why your daughter is allergic to an oven."

"I can cook!" Judy protested. Nick snorted slightly. Only two people flinch.

"With a microwave, maybe. Are you forgetting the carrot pie debacle?"

Judy groaned.

"That is _not_ -"

"There was pastry welded to my ceiling for _three weeks_ , Jude." he grinned. "Did you ever try to teach her, Mrs Hopps?"

Oh, that wily bastard. Nothing could bond people quicker than a shared annoyance (Nick's Law #12).

Bonnie smiled indulgently.

"Many times. Eventually we couldn't afford to repair any more fire damage, so I had to give in." She sighed resignedly "The kitchen curtains still smell of smoke. Do you cook, Nick?"

 _Score_. Rule #19: Names always make things harder to hate. Nick smiled lazily.

"When I have to."

Judy leaned forward in her seat.

"You should try Vupine cuisine, Mom, it's amazing, all drizzles and spices and sauce. Nothing like this."

Bonnie looked genuinely interested, but before she can answer Viola Wilde poked a curious muzzle between them, and suddenly everyone seemed to remember there was another fox at the table.

"He's cooked for you, dear?" She asked, tapering, reluctantly hopeful. Judy smiled eagerly. _Second imprression, don't (indecent, paws, shirt, sweat, dangerous) screw it up._

"As many times as I can force him. Why?"

Viola smiled, the way it had taken Judy months to teach her son; open and honest and free.

"Well, it's just nice to know my grandmother's recipes have survived another generation."

Suddenly Judy's smile was much less painful; she looked back at Nick, but his flickered and died. His eyes dropped to his plate again. Judy noticed his mother had barely touched hers.

Conversation petered out.

Dessert passed in a haze of sunset and familiar voices; the fireflies came out to dance around the fruit trees ringing the garden, and the look of awe on Nick's face let her see them through new eyes again.

Too soon, the dishes were being cleared and Nick's offers to help were being shot down a little hastily for Judy's liking. Viola excused herself early, thanked Bonnie for the meal and rushed away like a trespasser scented by hounds. Judy watched her go, wishing she knew what to think.

The kits who pulled the short straw trooped off to help their mother with washing up, and then they were just sitting there, side by side in easy silence. The rest of the kits rolled about laughing in the grass. Judy resisted the urge to pinch herself.

"Okay?" she asked. He smiled at the old ritual.

"Okay."

And then she smiled, and suddenly Judy could see herself staying right here in this chair, with the world, the sky and the fireflies laid out in front for them to see, and growing old and wrinkled and fat wth this fox and bickering every step of the way, until they went to bones together, side by side, beneath the same open sky. There were worse ways to go.

"Judy. Judy!"

Judy blinked, and suddenly she wasn't sixty with a ring on her finger anymore. Her sister was coming towards her.

"Joyce? Hey!" Judy leapt out of the chair and seized her closest sibling in a hug that near crushed her ribs. "How are you?"

"Oh, y'know. Not bad."

"And how many kits is it now?" Judy tried to inject sunshine into her voice. Joyce's ear twitched.

"We capped it at twelve."

"Smart move." Nick said, finally recognizing a name he knew. Joyce managed to smile.

"You must be Judy's famous partner."

"That all depends on what I'm famous for." He joked, and it was Joyce who extended her paw to shake.

"Absolutely nothing right now." She frowned at Judy, who had the good grace to look sheepish, "But don't worry! That just means we've got to make up for lost time."

Nick tried not look like he'd rather crawl into an early grave.

"My name's Joyce, by the way. Though, judging by how you didn't ask for it, you already knew that."

Behind her, Judy froze with GUILT written over her face in big neon letters. Nick coughed.

"Um, well, police work isn't all glitz and glam. Mostly it's just sitting in the cruiser getting fat. We needed to pass the time."

"Oh, I'm sure." Joyce agreed, "Which begs the question of why Judy never mentioned someone she spends so much time with."

Nick paused, carefully, as if navigating a minefield and deciding where best to put his next paw. Joyce still hadn't let go of his paw, and close to he could see something sharp beneath the cheery veneer. He wondered if this was what it was like to be opposite Judy in the interrogation room.

Then Joyce let go and she was chatting with Judy again. Her face hadn't changed, but a kind of understanding had flowed between Nick and her like an electric current.

 _I'm watching you._

Nick thought he might be scared of the wrong Hopps.

"So, you've been drafted in as a war reserve?" Judy asked.

"Yup, but I'm not farming. I'm a war nurse now." Joyce gave a lopsided grin, "Taking care of all the casualties, so all the college stuff is finally coming in handy!"

Judy winced.

"I bet that's grisly."

Joyce nodded solemnly.

"Oh yeah, feather allergies and bent ears. I think I'm losing my mammality in the sheer horror of it all."

Judy was reminded why Joyce had always been her favorite, and was about to -

Nick yelped.

The entire garden froze. As one, all eyes turned on him.

There was a tiny kit, maybe a year old, yanking enthusiastically on his tail. Nick's fists were balled, his face like scrunched paper. The kit had stopped yanking, and now she sat tenderly stroking, as if Nick's tail were a stray she'd adopted off the street.

Nick didn't move. The farm was caught in that awful silence between one breath and the next.

Joyce swept forward with and scooped the child up.

"Zoe! Be careful!" She scanned the little doe, as if sure she'd be hurt, then looked back at Nick, "You do not yank on other people's fur, you say sorry to the gentle-mammal."

"S'fine." Nick managed, curling and uncurling his already injured tail. "No harm done."

The garden exhaled and the breeze ruffled the trees. Everyone forgot about Nick when he stopped being The Fox.

"Sorry." murmured Zoe, in the half-formed clay speech of an infant. But she didn't look sorry. She stared at Nick's tail enraptured, then at him. "Why is it so soft?"

Nick shrugged.

"That's just the way fox tails are."

"Oh." Zoe thought about this. "That's not very scary."

Joyce flinched and shushed her, but Nick laughed.

"No, it's not. Most things aren't half as scary as people tell you."

"Where's your robber's mask?" Zoe asks, obviously emboldened. Joyce looked as if she'd like the ground to open up and swallow her.

"I lost it." Nick says, "the day I met your... Aunt?" he looked at Joyce for conformation, who nodded mutely. "I used to have a lot of bad things from before that, but I keep losing them, now."

"It's true," Judy confirms, "he's a complete loser."

"Thanks, Jude."

Zoe giggled and finally let Joyce guide her away, who smiled at Judy and then at Nick, but there was vinegar mixed in with the honey, as if she was warning him not to give her daughter any ideas.

...

Later, when everyone was drifting off to bed, to barricade themselves in away from the new intruders. They staggered back through the warren, Nick letting Judy tug him along and deciding to learn the route back when he got lost tomorrow.

They reached his room and he tried to flop onto the bed, except it didn't work because his hindpaws still hung off the bottom and dragged on the floor. He'd never been more tired in his life.

Judy sighed, tugged him up again with gentle paws, and managed to get him propped up against the sink while she arranged the bedding into something more his size on the floor. All the snark and glib that had been holding him up was gone; it was as if a cork had popped and now it was trickling out of a small hole and he was never getting it back. The world looked dark and heavy through half-closed lids.

Then Judy was back to him, he could feel her paws on his own and there was a soothing voice, and he couldn't make out the words but that was all right, because by now he knew her well enough to feel what was being said instead. She laid him down on the duvet and managed to pull his shirt up over his head, and then he was curled up with his head in her lap. She stroked his ears. He felt nine years old again.

"Sing me a lullaby." He murmured, an attempt to claw the snark back.

Except she did.

Low and wavering and just out of tune, and Nick was really slipping away now. Something warm blooms in his chest, bedtime story and midnight cocoa feeling. He held on to her tighter, and through her this childlike simplicity he'd lost in the dark so long ago. He keeps finding things, too. Lucky rabbit's foot. Heh. Strike two today.

He knew there were reasons for him to be tired, so many reasons, they stretched back through eternity to this morning, but he couldn't help but feel cheated of something because she wasn't sleeping too. _These youngsters with all thier energy_. Even the Judy in his head sounded tired.

Soon she rose to go, and he held out a paw in a languid attempt to keep her. She gave the paw a squeeze instead, and then suddenly she was back and satin lips were pressed into his ear, and then she was gone, summer air rising to nothing.

He felt mothered. He felt home. He felt -

Sleep.

 **A/N:**

 **He cried with a loud voice: "Lazarus come forth!"**

 **So, I'm afraid I'm not sure what I'm doing here. This fic was dead. I had (have) the plot, the ideas, the dialogue, but I could never make it flow. I moved on to other things. Then this fic kept getting followers. And reviews. And, and, and, so I thought it would be cruel not to write more. It's now midnight and school is gonna love me in the morning.**

 **Again, I don't know if I'll continue this, but thank you for giving me the motivation to write it. Feel free to hate my guts for the rest of time.**

 **As always, reviews are ichor (even well-deserved death threats).**

 **P.s. The 'Mazzeo Park Five' are based on the real life Central Park Five. If you ever want to get pissed off by real world racism, look it up.**

 **Also, #sixseasonsandamovie**


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